Canvassing of votes from Davao City deferred

The Congress, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), on Monday decided to defer anew the canvassing of votes from Davao City due to the absence of statement of votes (SOV) there. Lawyer Danilo Culio, head of the provincial board of canvassers in Davao City, said their canvassing and consolidation server failed to print the SOV despite the help from Smartmatic personnel. House Speaker Prospero Nograles questioned Culio for proclaiming the winning local candidates there without the SOV. The counsels of the presidential candidates said SOV is needed before a proclamation, but Culio said the certificates of canvass (COC) would suffice. Nograles run for mayor in Davao City but lost to Vice Mayor Sarah Duterte, daughter of incumbent Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. Lawyer Romulo Macalintal said the SOV would determine the authenticity and due execution of the COCs. Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said the soft copy of the SOV exists but it cannot be printed because the server might crash. The SOV has 10,000 pages. It was earlier announced that a total of 580,236 voters cast their votes in Davao City. Smartmatic–Asia Pacific president Cesar Flores said they are now locating the laptop used in Davao City in order to generate the SOV from the server. The laptop was brought to the warehouse in Cabuyao, Laguna after the polls. "As soon as they find it, within the day, we will bring it here," he told the NBOC. Before Davao City, the NBOC canvassed the votes from Eastern Samar after the NBOC Secretariat found the missing COCs in one of the ballot boxes allotted for the election returns. “Based on the information received today, the Senate has found the box in a store room for ballot boxes for election returns," Nograles reported to the body which started its session at 2:19 p.m. Presidential front-runner Senator Benigno Simeon Aquino III and Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay dominated the presidential and vice presidential race in Eastern Samar with 76, 028 and 73,711 votes, respectively. The NBOC has yet to count the votes from Bacolod City, Mountain Province, and Lanao del Sur, which held its special elections last Thursday. The has yet to receive the electronically transmitted results and manually prepared COC from Lanao del Sur. — KBK/RSJ, GMANews.TV