Last COC for Eleksyon 2022 transmitted to NBOC —Comelec

The last certificate of canvass (COC) for Eleksyon 2022, coming from Lanao del Sur, has already been transmitted to the National Board of Canvassers on Wednesday morning, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said. 

In a message to reporters, poll Commissioner George Garcia noted a “successful transmission” of the 173rd COC, which was sent electronically to NBOC at 4:16 a.m. on Wednesday, May 25.

It could be recalled that Tubaran, Lanao del Sur had to conduct special elections on May 24, more than two weeks after the May 9 national and local elections, after its reported failure of elections due to violence, threats, and intimidation.

The special polls in Tubaran were eventually conducted "glitch-free," Garcia said.

Garcia on Tuesday said that all 12 barangays and 15 clustered precincts in the province opened and functioned for the special elections.

Party-list groups, senators

The Comelec, sitting as NBOC, will resume its session at 3 p.m. on Wednesday to continue the canvassing of votes for the party-list groups at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.

Acting poll spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco earlier said the poll body is eyeing to proclaim the winning party-list groups for the 2022 elections by Thursday or Friday this week.

Last week, the Comelec had already proclaimed all 12 winning senators in the 2022 elections based on the latest canvass report by the NBOC, in which 172 out of 173 COCs were canvassed.

Votes for president, VP

The Congress, on the other hand, convened on Tuesday morning as the NBOC to start the canvassing of votes for president and vice president in the 2022 elections.

It has processed 104 out of 173 COCs when it suspended the canvassing of votes for president and vice president past 11:00 p.m. Tuesday.

Canvassing of votes for president and vice president from the provinces of Pampanga and Sultan Kudarat were deferred however due to missing COCs. The NBOC pushed through with the canvassing of votes from the two provinces based on the authenticated copies of the COCs which were sent through Viber, but they still required the provincial election supervisors to send the actual documents to the House of Representatives on Wednesday morning.

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. 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.

The NBOC resumed sessions on Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. to continue the canvassing.

It however deferred the canvassing of votes for president and vice president from Mandaluyong City due to missing COCs.

"We shall now defer the canvass of the City of Mandaluyong until we have a better explanation from the Comelec elections supervisor from the city of Mandaluyong," House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez said.

At the course of the session, the COCs from Sulu and the City of Manila were also discovered to be missing. The canvassing of their votes was also deferred by the joint committee.

Meanwhile, the canvassing of votes from Taguig and Pateros were also deferred because of an issue on labeling.

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri earlier said that Congress, sitting as the NBOC, was looking to proclaim the new president and vice president on Wednesday.

Ako Bicol party-list Representative Alfredo Garbin, a member of the House of Representatives contingent for the NBOC, also made the same announcement on Wednesday morning.

"We expect these COCs to be physically delivered today so we can canvass and tally the same before we end the canvassing for presidential and vice presidential race," Garbin said in an interview with CNN Philippines.

"We expected to finish the canvassing by 5 or 6 p.m. this afternoon. That is the trajectory, and iyon rin ang gusto ng House and Senate leadership, that we finish this afternoon," he added. —KG/RSJ, GMA News