Comelec receives Cotabato City COC two days after BOL plebiscite

The Commission on Elections (Comelec), serving as the National Board of Canvassers, has received the first batch of certificates of canvass and other poll paraphernalia from Cotabato City in connection with Day 1 of the plebiscite on the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL).

The Cotabato COC reached the Comelec headquarters in Manila office a few minutes before 5 p.m. Wednesday and two days after the plebiscite was held.

The COC was brought by a team led by election officer,  Attorney Romel Rama.

The Comelec has deferred its canvassing of the votes on BOL plebiscite twice in two days pending the arrival of the COCs from the areas where the BOL plebiscite was conducted, which include provinces in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and its contiguous areas.

The BOL, a product of the peace agreement between the government and former separatist movement Moro Islamic Liberation Front, replaces the ARMM with a Bangsamoro Autonomous Region which will have an expanded land and water jurisdiction, fiscal autonomy, increased share in national government resources, among others.

Earlier, the spotlight turned on Cotabato City since its COC signed by Comelec election officers which  made rounds on Tuesday night showed that there were 39,207 voters who cast their vote on the BOL plebiscite—a number which is lesser than the combined number of ‘yes’ vote (36,682) and ‘no’ vote (24,994) cast.

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez later clarified on Wednesday morning that the entry on the total number of voters who cast their vote in Cotabato City was erroneous, and that the election officers in Cotabato City committed a clerical error.

Jimenez said the tally on the number of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ vote were correct, but 61,676 out of the 113,751 registered voters in Cotabato City voted during the conduct of Day 1 of the BOL plebiscite last January 21.

The three election officers who affixed their name and signatures on the wrongful Certificate of Canvass include: Romel Rama, Mariam Mastura-Linsangan and Concepcion Balawag.

The Comelec has yet to decide whether these election officers will be sanctioned. — RSJ, GMA News