Extra COC from Bacolod delays resumption of canvassing

Confusion regarding the certificates of canvass (COC) from Bacolod City slightly marred the resumption of the congressional canvassing of votes for president and vice president Thursday afternoon. The National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), composed of 18 lawmakers, found out that there were three (COCs) for Bacolod City when there should only be two. They also discovered that the results in the third COC were different from the other two, which were the COC electronically transmitted to the NBOC, and the one that was manually prepared. The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said the third was a reconciled COC. Comelec executive director Jose Tolentino explained that the results in the third COC were different because the electronic and manual COCs included the result of the final testing and sealing (FTS), which he said was a mistake on the part of the board of election inspectors (BEIs) in Bacolod City. He said the BEIs erroneously included or sent the result of the FTS in the final results it sent to the Congress on May 12. After learning this error, the Comelec ordered the provincial board of canvassers to submit a report on the corrected result that would exclude the FTS. The reconciled COC was sent to the Comelec on May 21. The NBOC suspended the canvassing to allow the Comelec to explain the matter more thoroughly. The body later on decided to defer the canvassing of the Bacolod COC. The body also deferred the canvassing of votes from Davao City because of the absence of statement of votes. As of 2:27 p.m., the NBOC had opened 222 COCs, the latest being from Antique, North Cotabato, Southern Leyte, Batangas, Quezon City, and Abra. Still leading the canvassing is Senator Benigno Simeon “Noynoy" Aquino III with 12, 735,059 votes for president, and Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay with 12, 208, 662 votes, for vice president. Tailing Aquino is former President Joseph Estrada with 8, 142, 527, followed by Senator Manuel Villar Jr with 4, 533, 202. Sen. Manuel Roxas II, meanwhile, ranked second in the vice presidential race with 11, 736, 878 votes, followed by Senator Loren Legarda with 3, 486, 066. Spotted in the session hall were supporters of Aquino and Binay. Aquino’s followers, clad in yellow shirts with his campaign slogan “Kung Walang Corrupt, Walang Mahirap" printed on them, were on the right gallery, while Binay’s were on the left gallery. Binay’s supporters, clad in blue shirts, in the session hall were reportedly members of Alpha Phi Omega fraternity, of which the Makati mayor is a member. - KBK, GMANews.TV