COCs from 82 Phl posts admitted, canvassed – Comelec

All of the 58 certificates of canvass (COCs) from 82 Philippine posts across the world have reached the national canvassing center of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Comelec Commissioner and chair of Comelec- Office for Overseas Filipinos Arthur Lim said yesterday the COCs had been admitted and canvassed at the Comelec.

Lim said of the 1.37 million overseas absentee voters, 432,706 actually voted, posting the second highest voters’ turn out since absentee voting started in 2014.

Based on a tabulation re- leased by Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was leading the vice presidential race with 176,669 votes, while Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo got 89,935 votes.

Robredo won in 10 posts – Agana, United States, Canberra, Jakarta, Vatican, New Delhi, Yangon, Berne, The Hague and Port Moresby while Marcos took the rest.

Lim said of the 58 COCs, 18 COCs were supposed to be transmitted electronically but the COC from Tel Aviv had to be brought manually to the canvassing center due to Internet blockage implemented by Israeli government for security reasons.

The votes for president and vice president are officially being canvassed not by Comelec but by Congress, he said.

Postal service

Comelec-OFOV Secretariat head Jane Valeza noted that some 30,000 overseas Filipinos in North America, Latin America and Africa were not able to vote after the official ballots that the poll body sent to them through postal service as early as February did not reach them.

“It seems that postal service all over the world is no longer efficient because of technology. E-mail is now the primary way of sending (correspondence), such that they have not received the ballots until now,” she added.

The Comelec is now tracking down the ballots.

The other reasons for such voter turnout is the high mobility of the Filipinos, distance of Philippine embassies and consular offices from the places of work of these voters and employers who did not allow them to vote.

Sub-committees formed

Meanwhile, the Comelec, sitting as National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), has created sub-committees that will audit seven objected COCs.

The sub-committees were formed to “compare the hard printed copies as delivered by the provincial election supervisor or election officer, and compare it with the generated COCs and the statement of votes (SOVs) per municipality to determine if any municipality has been omitted from the COCs,” Lim said.

In yesterday’s resumption of the national canvassing for senators and party-list groups, Lim said they “will amend certain rules of the NBOC.”

“We will start (today) the subcommittees. The parties will be given the opportunity to review the printed COCs as against the hard copies of the COCs and the SOVs per municipality,” he added.