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Comelec wraps up canvassing of votes for senators, party-list groups


The proclamation of the winners of the senatorial and party-list elections is expected to push through on Thursday after the Commission on Elections, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, wrapped up the canvassing on Wednesday night.

The proceedings were adjourned around 6 p.m., admitting at least 164 certificates of canvass from all over the country.

The NBOC was waiting for Northern Samar to transmit its COC, which arrived on Wednesday afternoon, after special elections were held at Lope de la Vega town earlier this week.

Before wrapping up, it was reported that the province of Bohol transmitted another COC.

Its acting provincial election supervisor, Jerome Brillantes, was at the venue to explain that the town of Baclayon was missing in the provincial count since the results from that town included test results.

The first transmitted COC was eventually replaced, and the new one, which was manually prepared and brought to Manila, was admitted.

The last COC to be opened was the one for detainee voting.

The NBOC is set to release its final canvass report on Thursday morning. The proclamation of 12 senators-elect and 59 winning party-list groups will be held in the afternoon, starting at 3 p.m.

It took about nine days for the NBOC to facilitate the canvassing, amid reports of double transmissions and small numbers from test results getting mixed in the official count.

During this time, the camps of some senatorial candidates and party-list groups brought before the NBOC seeming discrepancies between results shown in the COCs and those that appear on the transparency server.

The NBOC has noted in such instances that camps may have included highly urbanized cities—which have separate COCs—in the count for some provinces.

Comelec chief Andres Bautista said he was glad about how the proceedings turned out.

"Siyempre ako ay natutuwa dahil... We wanted to make sure that it was orderly, it was quick, but at the same time it was accurate," he told reporters.

Based on Comelec's 2nd partial-official report, released Monday afternoon, the top 12 senatorial candidates are:

  • Senate President Franklin Drilon
  • former TESDA director-general Joel Villanueva
  • Sen. Vicente Sotto III
  • former Sen. Panfilo Lacson
  • former Sen. Richard Gordon
  • former Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri
  • Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao
  • former Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros
  • former Sen. Francis Pangilinan
  • Valenzuela City Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian
  • Sen. Ralph Recto
  • former Justice Sec. Leila de Lima.

While Wednesday's canvassing was ongoing, former MMDA chair Francis Tolentino asked the Supreme Court to stop the proclamation of candidates ranked 10th, 11th, and 12th in this race.

Tolentino is in 13th place based on partial-official tally, behind by about 1.2 million votes from De Lima.

He said the 10th, 11th and 12th placer in the senatorial race should not yet be proclaimed because an alleged "data manipulation" has compromised the results of the results of the May 9 elections.

Tolentino asked the SC to direct the Comelec to open the automated election system to forensic audit and investigation to determine the nature, extent, effect, and consequences of the unauthorized manipulation of the system made by Marlon Garcia of Smartmatic, systems provider for the recently concluded polls.

Sought for comment, Bautista said, "Susundin namin ang magiging direktiba [ng Korte Suprema]."

Canvassing of results for president and vice president is expected next week at Congress. —NB, GMA News

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