Canvassing of president, VP votes from Surigao del Sur deferred due to missing COCs

The Congress, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), on Tuesday night deferred the official tallying of the votes from Surigao del Sur for president and vice president due to missing certificates of canvass (COCs).

"It seems that the COC from the province of Surigao del Sur is not in the ballot boxes 024A and 024B," Negros Occidental 4th District Representative Juliet Marie De Leon manifested during the canvassing of votes at the plenary hall of the House of Representatives.

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, the co-chairperson of the NBOC, said the joint panel has received the electronically transferred COCs, but the COCs supposed to have been manually transported to the Senate were not found inside the ballot boxes.

"What you’re saying is we have the electronically transferred COCs but the manually transported COCs to the Senate, when the boxes were opened, do not contain the COCs for president and vice president for canvass for the province of Surigao del Sur," Zubiri said.

"Therefore, the proper procedure is to defer the canvassing of that province and we will ask the Comelec to answer within the hour the reason why the COC for the province of Surigao del Sur are not contained within these ballot boxes," he added.

The NBOC will ask the election officer, specifically provincial supervisor April Joy Balara to explain the incident before the board.

"We now direct the Comelec to immediately locate the best and give us an explanation, a valid explanation, why...these ballot boxes do not contain the COCs for president and vice president," Zubiri said.

At the latter part of the proceeding, Zubiri moved to open the ballot boxes containing the election returns (ERs) as the election officers might have inserted the COCs inside the other ballot boxes.

The motion was approved by his co-chair, House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez.

Asked to comment on the incident, poll commissioner George Garcia said it should be answered by the Provincial Board of Canvassers.

"Sila po ang nag-deliver sa Senate [They are the ones who delivered them to the Senate]," Garcia told reporters in a Viber message.

On the other hand, Commission on Elections acting spokesperson Rex Laudiangco said they already informed the Regional Election Director of CARAGA to notify the PBOC of Surigao del Sur.

'Not missing'

Later on, Zubiri said that the COCs were not missing and the documents were with the election assistant at the Provincial Election Supervisor's office.

"They have found it. So it is not missing and under our rules, if personal appearance is not practicable, the PBOC or the CBOC concerned may be required to appear through any form of means of communication deemed safe and reliable by the joint committee," Zubiri said.

"Therefore, we may ask you to appear now on Zoom, take your oath by our [secretary general] on the part of the secretariat and attest to the reason why hindi naisama sa [they were not included in the] ballot box, it was not contained in the ballot box," he added.

Balano, who faced the NBOC through video conferencing, apologized for the "inadvertence."

"This is the brown envelope that contained the COCs. It was inadvertently mixed with the COCP (Certificate of Canvass and Proclamation) of [other] positions," she said.

"This was supposedly submitted to the Senate but it was refused receipt considering that it was inside a brown envelope," she added.

Election Assistant Sally Bagolbol, who also faced the joint panel virtually, showed the actual COCs to the lawmakers.

The election officials of Surigao del Sur then sent the documents through Viber which were later on printed by the NBOC so the canvassing of votes from the province could resume.

The NBOC pushed through with the canvassing but they required Balano to send the actual COCS to the House of Representative on Wednesday morning. — BM, GMA News