Comelec suspends national canvassing until Tuesday

(Updated 8:41 p.m.) The National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), composed of chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. and the six members of the Commission on Elections, suspended its session Monday evening and will resume at 10 in the morning Tuesday.
 
According to a report by Jam Sisante on GMA News TV's Eleksyon 2013 coverage, the NBOC said that results are just trickling in at the moment, and that it is waiting for a substantial number of results to come in before it will start the official canvassing of votes.

The delay will affect the official release of results for the senatorial race, but will not have an impact on the declaration of winners at the local level.

Local canvassing continues, with the results to be brought to the City Board of Canvassers and then to the Provincial Board of Canvassers.

In a press briefing, Brillantes said the en banc expects the results to come in in the next few hours.

"By that time [10 a.m.], a substantial number [of results] would have been received," he said, adding that they will announce results when they reconvene Tuesday morning.

"Baka nga ho mag-ready na kami magproclaim, depende ho 'yung layo sa 12th and 13th place," Brillantes said in an interview with GMA's 24 Oras newscast later.

Suspension is 'normal procedure'

In a phone interview with GMA News Online, election lawyer Romulo Macalintal said the NBOC's decision is nothing out of the ordinary.

"That’s normal procedure. It’s a standard procedure that if the board of canvassers have yet to receive the certificate of canvass, it will stop the proceedings," he said.

"Ang nangyayari kasi pinapakitang negative agad. It’s a standard normal procedure," Macalintal said.

'A little rest'

Brillantes said they decided to resume at 10 a.m. Tuesday "to give everybody a chance to rest."

"We are working too hard, we are entitled to a little rest. Pahinga nang konti," he said.

"First, the suggestion was 10 o'clock this evening. The other suggestion is 6 o'clock tomorrow morning and the final agreement was that we will commence, we will resume only tomorrow morning to give everybody a chance to rest because today is Election Day,” he said.

“When we were discussing this whether we should continue immediately after the initialization and the zeroing, we could have proceeded immediately but it was decided by the en banc that we would rather wait for a few hours,” Brillantes added.

"Each and every one of us have been working so hard that we feel we are entitled to a little rest tonight. Pahinga lang konti and we will be ready to proceed tomorrow," he continued.

PPCRV's unofficial count

The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), on the other hand, will continue to accept election results and feature an unofficial tally on its site.

"Liliwanagin natin, the unofficial ones okay lang 'yun, wala namang problema e, so everybody can monitor it," Brillantes said.

"Kami, since this is the official canvass, we will have to wait, papasok pa ito sa municipal board of canvassers, it will now go up to the municipal board, to the provincial board before it goes to the national board. So medyo mas matagal nang kaunti ito kasi official ang aming results," he also said.

Convened

The NBOC officially convened past 6 p.m. Monday, ahead of the results that started coming in at 7 p.m., when voting ended.

The Comelec en banc also initialized Monday evening the consolidation and canvassing system (CCS), which receives the electronically transmitted election results from all parts of the country.
 
Before opening the box containing the CCS, the clerk of the commission, laywer Josie dela Cruz, allowed the lawyers and representatives of senatorial candidates and party-list groups to see that the box containing the laptop where the CCS is installed and other necessary materials and equipment was sealed.

In initializing the system, Brillantes allowed the younger and newer commissioners—Robert  Christian Lim, Al Parreno and Luie Guia—to enter the username and password.

The National Canvass Report then appeared, with the candidates having "zero" votes.
 
Brillantes certified that the report contained zero votes, and announced the suspension of the canvassing.

Resolution 9686

On May 6, the Comelec en banc promulgated Resolution 9686, detailing what the NBOC will do during the canvassing and consolidation of votes. The poll body also assigned different committees and working groups to help it in the task such as:
 
-Consolidation and Canvassing System (CCS) operator
-Supervisory Committee
-Reception, Custody and Safekeeping Group
-Secretariat
-Tabulation Group
-Control and Releasing Group
-Security Group
-Legal Group
-Mass Media Group, and
-Logistics and Maintenance Group.
 
The resolution states that should there be any discrepancy between the printed and electronically transmitted certification of canvass, the canvassing of the certificates of canvass (COCs) shall be deferred.
 
The NBOC may also determine the authenticity and due execution of the electronically transmitted COCs in accordance with existing laws and rules.
 
In case of discrepancy, incompleteness, erasure or alteration of the COC, the candidate, political party, coalition or political parties or party-list groups shall submit their oral observation or manifestation to the chairman of the board of canvassers at the time the concerned COC is presented in the canvass.
 
The complaining party should submit their verified petition in 10 legible copies, simultaneous with oral observation or manifestation as the NBOC will not entertain any opposition or observation unless reduced to writing.
 
If the NBOC sees there is a proper case, the canvass of the contested COC will be deferred.
 
Even if the NBOC has yet to receive or canvass all of the COCs, it may terminate the canvass if the missing COCs would no longer affect the result of the elections. — with a report from Marc Jayson Cayabyab/BM, GMA News