NBOC may finish canvassing votes for president, VP in 4 days

The National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) may finish counting votes for president and vice president in just four days, a senator said Wednesday.

Sen. Ralph Recto, a member of the NBOC, told GMA's QRT in an interview that they started the canvassing of votes around 3 p.m. and at 5 p.m., they have counted votes based on 11 certificates of canvass.

The NBOC needs to count votes from a total of 165 COCs.

"Kung eight hours a day, in four days tapos na tayo," Recto said.

The NBOC has agreed to conduct the canvassing eight hours a day -- from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. -- only on weekdays.

Recto, however, said that the NBOC may decide to canvass votes on Saturday if they will be able to canvass at least 150 COCs by Friday night.

The senator said the canvassing may only be delayed if the camps of certain candidates, particularly vice presidential candidate Sen. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, would be able to provide proof of possible rigging of poll results.

"Kung may ebidensya na maipapakita na iba ang will of the people, halimbawa sa ibang probinsya, na maliwanag, may dokumento na magpapakita na may kakaibang nangyari, kung walang ganun, palagay ko mabilis ang proclamation," Recto said.

"Kung may basehan puwedeng tingnan. Kung tingin namin walang basehan at lahat ng document ay in order ika-canvass iyan," he added.

In a separate interview, Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said that it should be easy for the NBOC members to spot the discrepancy.

He said its just a "matter of comparison," referring to the manually delivered COC and the electronically submited COCs submitted to the NBOC by the Commission on Elections.

The camp of Marcos vowed to carefully scrutinize each COC that will be canvassed by the NBOC.

Finish canvassing ASAP

Senate President Franklin Drilon assured that the NBOC will try to finish their job as soon as possible.

In a chance interview, Drilon hopes the immediate approval of the canvassing rules would hasten the process.

"We just have to go through it and at least, we can start today. The immediate approval of the rules is a good sign that we can finish this earlier than we have scheduled. We'll try to finish it as soon as possible," he said.

Marcos Jr. earlier moved for early proclamation of Duterte, who is the runaway winner in the presidential race, so that the canvassing panel could focus on the tight vice presidential contest between him and Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo.

Rodriguez said that the NBOC needs to proclaim the president and the vice president at the same time.

Among the COCs that have been canvassed by the NBOC were from Siquijor, Guimaras, San Juan City, South Korea, Agana (Guam), Malaysia, Pasay City, Valenzuela City, and Davao del Sur, home province of Duterte.

The fastest canvassing of votes after democracy was restored in 1986 took place in 2010 when the Philippines implemented the automated election system.

The proclamation of winners was made on June 9, 2010 or after only eight canvassing days (excluding weekends). —Virgil Lopez/ALG, GMA News