Senate President Franklin Drilon and House Speaker Sonny Belmonte oversee the opening of the ballot boxes containing Certificates of Canvass at the House of Representatives on Tuesday. The Joint Congress convened to canvass votes for the presidential and vice-presidential races.(MNS photo)
MANILA (Mabuhay) – Mandaluyong City Rep. Neptali Gonzales II on Thursday said discrepancies that may be found by Congress, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) for votes for president and vice president, do not immediately point to election irregularities or manipulation.
Gonzales, head of the canvassing panel of the House of Representatives, said “Kami sa NBOC, we are just doing our ministerial duty na pagbibilang ng mga boto.”
If there are discrepancies between the electronic and hard copies of the Certificates of Canvass (COC), the NBOC refers them to the Board of Canvassers of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), Gonzales explained.
Comelec will then determine the reason for the discrepancy in the votes reflected in the electronic and hard copies.
“Kung may pagkakaiba, then pinapupunta lang namin yung mga board of canvassers para lang ipaliwanag yung pagkakaiba at hindi nangangahulugan na mayroong manipulasyon,” Gonzales said.
“Ang batayan namin sa electronic system would be the electronically transmitted results. Ang task is i-prepare namin yung boto na nakalagay diyan for president and vice president at kung nagta-tally ito pareho sa hard copy ng COC na manually pinadala sa amin,” Gonzales said.
On Wednesday, NBOC deferred the canvassing of votes from the provinces of Laguna, Davao del Norte, and Ilocos Sur.
For Laguna, the votes from the town of Rizal were recorded on the hard copy but were not included in the electronic copy.
For Davao del Norte, Gonzales said the first transmission from the area included the test votes but this error was corrected in the succeeding transmissions.
“Hindi nangangahulugan na dineffer namin ay may manipulasyon,” Gonzales emphasized.
Meanwhile, Gonzales noted that NBOC is the only body that can release the official tally of votes.
The results may differ from the unofficial count of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) transparency servers, he said.
“We just want to remind our people that this is the official canvass,” Gonzales said.
“Yung sa PPCRV, that is unofficial. Ang canvass na ginagawa namin is the only official result that will lead to the proclamation of the president and the vice president,” he explained.
Almost 120 COCs were electronically transmitted out of the 165 COCs for the entire country. The remaining, particularly those from overseas absentee voting, were manually submitted to the NBOC.
Gonzales said the NBOC hopes to finish the canvassing immediately so that the country’s new president and vice president could be proclaimed as soon as possible.
On Wednesday, Sen. Koko Pimentel said the country’s new leaders could be jointly proclaimed by Congress on May 30.
“The earlier that we are able to proclaim the president and the vice president, para na rin sa katahimikan ng ating bansa,” Gonzales said. (MNS)