Congress to grill Comelec before actual canvass starts

(Update - 9:46 p.m.) No actual opening of certificates of canvass or canvassing of votes for President and Vice-President will happen on Wednesday. Instead, the Congress sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) decided to hear first the explanation of the Commission on Elections and supplier Smartmatic on complaints of irregularities in the conduct of the May 10 polls. The Senate and House of Representatives, sitting as the NBOC, convened on Tuesday afternoon at 2:52 pm with Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and House Speaker Prospero Nograles jointly presiding over the proceedings. (See: Congress starts joint session to canvass votes for president, VP)
More grilling for Comelec, Smartmatic Before Congress suspended the joint public session, both chambers agreed that the joint canvassing committee will convene at 2 p.m. Wednesday, not yet to actually open certificates of canvass, but to seek clarifications from the Comelec and Smartmatic about recurring questions about the conduct of the recent polls. The Comelec and Smartmatic were invited to attend the Wednesday hearing, but if they fail to appear, they will be subpoenaed, and worse, cited for contempt, Enrile said in an interview after the session. Other information technology (IT) experts would also be invited, he added. “We will ask them some questions first about the resolution that they discarded, the performance of the PCOS, why are there so much questions raised and being heard now by the suffrage committee of the House and other issues that will come up," Enrile said. The canvassing committee would also want to know what security measures were introduced in order to see to it that the integrity and the reliability of the documents that were created by the PCOS and transmitted to the various servers were maintained. Enrile said he estimates that the joint committee will spend at least two to three days in grilling the poll officials and the supplier “to clarify all of these issues so that we can canvass the votes without interruption." He said the questioning could be shortened “if we can get satisfactory answers to the questions." “If there are still questions to be answered then we have to ask the public to be patient so we can really clarify all these doubts. We do not want to have a canvass that is open to any cloud of doubt," the Senate President said. Approved rules After almost two hours of discussion, the Senate and Lower House also approved the rules it will use for the canvassing of votes for President and Vice President. The senators adopted the rules without any questions, while Lower House members deliberated and asked clarifications on the rules particularly on the non-use of digital signatures and which document to use in the canvassing. The House members finally agreed to approve the rules after Nograles assured them that the joint canvassing committee would seek clarification from the poll officials and Smartmatic. Under the approved rules, the joint committee, composed of nine members from each chamber, will open the electronically transmitted and manually submitted certificates of canvass. “The joint committee shall ascertain that the number of votes cast for each presidential and vice presidential candidate in the printed COC and in the electronically transmitted COCs are identical. Should there exist any discrepancy between the printed and electronically transmitted COCs, the canvass of the COC shall be deferred," the rules stated. It further stated that objections to the inclusion of a COC may be raised at the time the COC is being considered, and such objections may be submitted in writing together with evidence in support of it. The Senate President and House Speaker may order the deferment of the canvass of the contested COC. The rules also stated that after canvassing all uncontested COCs, the joint committee shall resolve the objections by a majority vote of its members, each panel voting separately. In case of disagreement, the decision of the Senate President and Speaker shall prevail. If there are discrepancies between the printed and electronically transmitted COCs with regard to the number of votes cast for each presidential and vice presidential candidate, the joint committee shall require the Board of Canvassers concerned to appear before it and explain the discrepancy. The rules said if the discrepancy cannot be reconciled even with the examination of the compact flash and secure digital (SD) cards from the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines, the joint committee may order the opening of a pre-determined number of precinct ballot boxes of that particular city, district or province. Dilangalen’s concerns The House deliberation on the canvassing rules was at first in danger of getting mired in the issue of irregularies, when Rep. Didagen "Digs" Dilangalen took the floor and asked Speaker Nograles to first settle the issue on digital signatures before approving the rules on canvassing. "We could not sacrifice transparency and substitute it with speed. It's public interest involved here." Questioning Comelec's decision not to include digital signatures in election returns, Dilangalen said, "What will readily guide the canvassing committee [in checking the authenticity of the ERs]? It's like abdicating our constitutional mandate." Nograles assured that Dilangalen's concerns would be tackled during the joint congressional canvassing. "The joint committee will confront Smartmatic on that matter. We are not taking any position," Nograles said. Smartmatic-Asia Pacific was the firm that supplied the 76,000 precinct count optical scan machines used in the May 10 polls. Concerns were also raised about the possibility that canvassing for presidential and vice presidential votes might not get canvassed simultaneously. But Nograles allayed fears of that scenario happening, and assured other House members that the joint committee will canvass both. Canvassing committee members named After the approval of the rules, the Senate and House then officially named the members of the joint congressional canvassing committee. On the part of the Senate, these are Enrile, Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., and Senators Rodolfo Biazon, Alan Peter Cayetano, Gregorio Honasan II, Edgardo Angara, Ramon Revilla Jr., and Joker Arroyo. The alternates are Senate ProTempore Jose “Jinggoy" Estrada, Senators Pia Cayetano, Lito Lapid and Francis Pangilinan. On the part of the House, the nine-man panel is composed of Nograles as chairman, majority leader Arthur Defensor, minority leader Ronaldo Zamora, senior deputy majority leader Neptali Gonzales II, senior deputy minority leader Roilo Golez, Reps. Crispin Remulla (Cavite), Didagen Dilangalen (Shariff Kabunsuan with Cotabato City), Jack Duavit (Rizal) and Matias Defensor (Quezon City). Alternate members include Representatives Teodoro Locsin Jr. (Makati), Rufus Rodriguez (Cagayan de Oro), Lorenzo Tanada III (Quezon), Liwayway Vinzons-Chato (Camarines Norte), Simeon Datumanong (Maguindanao), Giorgidi Aggabao (Isabela), Pedro Romualdo (Camiguin), Joseph Emilio Abaya (Cavite), and Eduardo Zialcita (Paranaque). Status of COCs The Senate President said he would demand an explanation from the Comelec why it "disregarded" the requirement on digital signatures being attached to election returns as provided for in the poll automation law. Enrile also raised a point about the initialization procedure of the consolidation and canvassing system (CCS) server, which receives the electronically transmitted certificates of canvass (COCs). He noted that during the initialization, he saw that the number of registered voters was recorded at 256,733,195, whereas the true figure was some 50 million voters only. This discrepancy was corrected by the Commission on Elections and Smartmatic personnel, but without the presence of representatives of political parties or candidates present. "I fully intend to ask Comelec to explain why this was allowed to happen despite the explicit conditions given to them," he said. Enrile however said that after a thorough examination and analysis of the technical procedure undertaken, "it was determined that no malicious code was executed that would compromise the integrity of the CCS." He also reported that as of 12 noon of Tuesday, the Senate has yet to receive 54 more COCs, since only 222 of the 278 COCs have been delivered. Enrile warns vs ‘delaying tactics’ In his speech before approving the canvassing of rules, Enrile said that people who have been attempting to delay the proclamation of the president and vice president by airing allegations of poll fraud must be punished. "They must be made to suffer the full consequence [of the law]. They must be jailed for making a mockery of the elections," Enrile said. He said that preventing the proclamation of a president and a vice president before June 30 "may just be the greatest disservice to the country." Under the 1987 Constitution, a joint session of Congress acting as the NBOC is the only mandated body to proclaim the winning candidates for president and vice president. The newly proclaimed president and vice president will then assume their respective offices at noon of June 30, along with other elected officials. The Philippines' president and vice president are elected every six years. Enrile earlier said that Congress will proclaim the country’s next president and vice-president before June 15. Proclamation before June 30 Like Enrile, Lower House legislators expressed confidence that a president and a vice president would be proclaimed before June 30, the date set by the Constitution for the turnover of power from the outgoing to the incoming president. "We can beat the deadline. There will be proclamation long before June 30," Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman told reporters after the joint session. Citizens Battle Against Corruption (Cibac) party-list Rep. Joel Villanueva said that while he expects canvassing of COCs from areas with contested results to take longer, he is also confident the joint session will meet the deadline. "Inaasahan na pag dumating ang distrito kung saan natalo ang miyembro ng Kamara, asahan niyo na magtatagal (Let’s expect that when [the canvassing] reaches those districts where House members lost, here’s where the process will take long), " Villanueva told GMANews.TV. Villanueva was selected as one of the alternate members of the House panel in the joint canvassing and became the only party-list lawmaker to be included in the group.—JV, GMANews.TV