Only 5 COCs left to canvass

(Updated 10 p.m.) The canvassing of votes for president and vice president was sped up Thursday after it was disclosed that Filipinos in 40 countries did not participate in the overseas absentee voting (OAV). Only five more certificates of canvass (COCs) are left to be canvassed — from Davao City, Bacolod City Mountain Province, Eastern Samar, and Lanao del Sur, according to Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri. These five areas are expected to bring in an estimated 1.4 million votes, which could significantly affect the outcome of the tightly-contested vice presidential race between Makati City Mayor Jejomary Binay and Senator Manuel "Mar" Roxas II. Earlier, Zubiri said only the COCs from Davao City, Bacolod City and Mountain Province are left to be canvassed. But he said there were still five left after suspending the canvassing for nearly an hour and meeting with other lawmakers. According to Zubiri, no COCs need to be canvassed from 40 countries as official communication from the Department of Foreign Affairs last May 31 reported that no votes were cast in the following OAV locations: 1. Vanuatu 2. Mongolia 3. Kiribati 4. Sudan 5. Iraq 6. Cameroon 7. Central African Republic 8. Cote D’Ivorire 9. Equatorial Guinea 10. Gabon 11. Guinea 12. Guinea-Bissau 13. Sierra Leone 14. Liberia 15. Sao Tome and Principe 16. Senegal 17. Uganda 18. Congo 19. Djibouti 20. Erithrea 21. Ethiopia 22. Mali 23. Chad 24. Malta (PE Tripoli) 25. Mauritani 26. Morocco (PE Tripoli) 27. Tunisia 28. Ecuador 29. American Samoa 30. Slovakia 31. Luxembourg 32. Poland 33. Malta (PE Holy See) 34. Albania 35. Bulgaria 36. Azerbaijan 37. Kazakhstan 38. Turkmenistan 39. Ukraine 40. Morocco (PE Madrid) Government records show there were a total of 29,114 Filipinos in these countries as of 2008. Senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III and Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay are still leading the presidential and vice presidential race, respectively, as of 6 p.m. — Jam Sisante/KBK/RSJ, GMANews.TV