Congress defers canvassing president, VP votes from some areas due to missing COCs, 'labeling' issue

Congress, which sits as the National Board of Canvassers, deferred on Wednesday the canvassing of votes for president and vice president from some areas due to missing certificates of canvass (COCs).

The joint committee initially discovered the missing COCs from Mandaluyong City.

"Our joint panel has noticed the absence of the manually transmitted COC of the City of Mandaluyong. We direct our Secretary General, our Senate secretary, and our secretariat to communicate with the Comelec officer present and in charge of the city of Manda to explain the absence of that COC," House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez said at the resumption of session.

"We shall now defer the canvass of the City of Mandaluyong until we have a better explanation from the Comelec elections supervisor from the City of Mandaluyong," Romualdez added.

At the course of the session, the COCs from Sulu and the City of Manila were also discovered to be missing. The canvassing of their votes was also deferred by the joint committee.

Meanwhile, the canvassing of votes from Taguig and Pateros were also deferred because of an issue on labeling.

"It is actually a matter of labeling. When we look at the other documents that we have, when you combine the two votes for Taguig and Pateros, it is equal or if you count the votes of Taguig and Pateros and combine them it is the same number as the source documents, the COCs," Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said.

Zubiri said the city election officer should authenticate this to proceed with the canvassing.

On Tuesday night, the joint committee also deferred the canvassing of votes for president and vice president from the provinces of Pampanga and Sultan Kudarat due to missing COCs.

Zubiri has expressed frustration over the delay.

Asked to explain the missing COCs, Atty. Helen Aguila-Flores, Deputy Executive Director for Administration of the Commission on Elections, said most of the concerned personnel were working under pressure.

"In the course of my conversations with provincial supervisors concerned, and this morning with the election officer of Mandaluyong, it is a common feature of their explanation that despite their prudence in trying to organize the different copies, it is inevitable that somehow they have missed to organize that part that is intended for this body in view of many factors like lack of sleep because they continuously do the canvassing. And being a former provincial supervisor myself, your honor, I had also gone through that experience," Aguila-Flores said.

"We really beg for your kind understanding, your honor, please, regarding such omission or shortcoming on the part of our field officers who are most of the time under pressure during the canvassing," she added.

She said the Mandaluyong City election officer concerned is on her way to bring the COCs.

The NBOC pushed through with the canvassing of votes from Pampanga and Sultan Kudarat on Tuesday based on the authenticated copies of the COCs which were sent through Viber, but they still required the provincial election supervisors to send the actual documents to the House of Representatives on Wednesday morning.

Prior to reporting the missing COCs from the two provinces, the NBOC announced that the COCs from Surigao del Sur were not in the  province's ballot boxes. Eventually, the panel accepted the authenticated copies of COCs, which were sent by the election officials from Surigao del Sur. However, they were required to send the actual document to Congress within 24 hours.

In an ambush interview at the House of Representatives, Comelec chairman Saidamen Pangarungan said he directed the executive director of the poll body to ask the Provincial Election Supervisor to explain and report the incidents.

"We will withhold the report I directed our executive director to let them explain and report to me," Pangarungan told reporters.

Pangarungan said the PES involved have already explained before the NBOC the cases of misplaced COCs but he said the concerned election officers might face suspension if they find "negligence" on their part.

"We will sanction kung may (if there is) negligence, if it turns out na may (that there is) negligence sila, there will be an appropriate sanction," he said.—KG/RSJ, GMA News