Congress defers canvassing president, VP votes in several provinces due to missing COCs

Congress, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, deferred the canvassing of votes for president and vice president from the provinces of Pampanga and Sultan Kudarat due to missing certificates of canvass (COCs).

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri expressed his frustration over the delay.

"With the indulgence of my colleagues, as mentioned earlier by Senator Nancy Binay and our dear colleagues on that side, they only have one job and one job to do, the [Provincial Election Supervisors], which is to insert the COCs of the province, of the results of the president and vice president into the ballot box and deliver it to the Senate," Zubiri said.

"One job and one job only. How can they be remiss in that job that is constitutionally mandated for them to do? And therefore we admonish the Comelec for this non-action or non-appearance of these COCs," he added.

Earlier, Senate Secretary Atty. Myra Villarica and House Secretary-General Mark Llandro Mendoza began opening the envelopes from the ballot boxes that were transmitted from Pampanga, but they found no documents in the envelopes.

"The COCs of Pampanga for president and vice president [are] missing," Negros Occidental 4th District Representative Juliet Marie de Leon, member of the House contingent in the NBOC, reported.

House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez, co-chairperson of the NBOC, directed the secretariat to contact the election officers from the said province to locate the COCs from Pampanga.

"May we direct the secretariat to contact the election officer-in-charge or the provincial election supervisor of Pampanga so we can determine the whereabouts and the condition of COCs of Pampanga," Romualdez said.

"With the indulgence of both panels, both the Senate and the House, we shall defer the consideration and the canvass of the province of Pampanga and instead and until we have contacted the provincial election supervisor or the respective election officer, we shall continue with the canvass and open the ballot box from Batangas," he added.

Moments after this, the NBOC also discovered that the COCs from Sultan Kudarat were also not in the ballot boxes delivered to the Senate.

“The COCs, which were supposed to be physically delivered here in Congress for Sultan Kudarat [are] not here,” Ako-Bicol party-list Representative Alfredo Garbin Jr., another member of the NBOC, said.

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.

The lawmakers asked the provincial election supervisor of Surigao del Sur to appear through video teleconference and explain the incident.

Atty. April Joy Balano explained that the missing COCs were at the Provincial Election Supervisor's office, mixed up with the COCs for other elective positions.

The NBOC tasked Balano and Election Assistant Sally Bagolbol to attest to the authenticity of the COCs that were left at the office.

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.

Similar to what happened with Balano, the NBOC asked the provincial election supervisors of Pampanga, Atty. Rommel Rama, and Sultan Kudarat, Atty. April Melchor Miguel to explain why the COCs were not placed inside the ballot boxes.

Both of them told the panel that the COCs were left with them. They were then asked to send pictures of the documents through Viber and attest that these are the official documents.

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

The NBOC has suspended the canvassing of votes for president and vice president past 11:00 p.m. Tuesday.

The joint panel has processed 104 out of 173 COCs.

They will resume sessions on Wednesday at 9:00 a.m.

In an interview after the suspension of session, Garbin said the first day of canvassing was "smooth-sailing" as the legal counsels of the presidential and vice presidential candidates did not interpose objections on the canvassing of COCs.

"Napadali 'yung trabaho ng members ng NBOC," he said.

Further, Garbin said provincial election supervisors who failed to secure the COCs inside the ballot boxes will no longer face sanctions as they were able to explain the incidents before the NBOC.

"Na-explain naman nila. They were given one hour to produce and explain. Siguro kung hindi na-produce, baka may contempt sana," he said.

(They were able to explain the incident. They were given one hour to produce and explain. If they were not able to produce it, they might face contempt.) — DVM/KG, GMA News