Over 1M votes still to be counted ? Comelec
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) failed on Sunday to finish the canvassing of votes for senators and party-list groups as five certificates of canvass (COCs), consisting of over one million votes, were yet to arrive at its headquarters in Pasay City.
Commission on Elections- Education and Information Department (EID) Assistant Director Frances Arabe said there are 1,683,938 votes that remain to be counted.
The number of votes is crucial for the senatorial bets whose ranks are from 10th to 14th.
The votes would come from Isabela province, where a special election is set on Monday; Washington DC, USA; Japan; Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; and Nigeria.
As of 7pm on Sunday, the NBOC received 162 COCs out of the total 167.
Of the 162 COCs, re-electionist Senator Cynthia Villar remained at the top spot with 24,757,642 votes.
Second in the list was independent candidate, Senator Grace Poe with 21,563,558 votes.
Administration candidates who got the third to fifth spots were former Special Assistant to the President Christopher "Bong" Go with 20,223,738 votes; Taguig City Representative Pia Cayetano with 19,390,096; and former Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa with 18,639,583.
Senator Sonny Angara was on the 6th place with 17,786,740 votes; former Senator Lito Lapid, 7th with 16,587,742; Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos, 8th with 15, 362,702; former presidential adviser Francis Tolentino, 9th with 15,196,397; Senator Koko Pimentel, 10th with 14,395,957; former Senator Bong Revilla, 11th with 14,279,625; and Senator Nancy Binay, 12th with 14,065,071.
Senator JV Ejercito was at 13th place with 13,983,153 votes, while opposition bet Senator Bam Aquino ranked 14th with 13,895,154.
Comelec Director for Overseas Voting Elaiza Sabile-David, in a press conference, said they are expecting the votes from US, Japan, and Saudi Arabia to arrive by Monday, while they are still communicating with Philippine Embassy in Nigeria on their request for a clearer version of their documents as the one transmitted in Manila was not clear.
“Japan (votes) is already at FedEx, it’s just that, FedEx is closed today and they cannot get the documents. So we'll gonna try everything so that we can immediately get it,” she said.
David said there are still around 200 ballots from Tokyo that are needed to be transmitted.
“So if they are closed today, hopefully tomorrow we can get the SD cards then by tomorrow they can transmit it to us,” she said.
Votes from Isabela are expected to be transmitted to Comelec shortly after the special elections on Monday.
In an earlier press conference, Arabe said if they could complete the canvassing of votes in the morning, it would not be possible to proclaim the winning candidates on the same day.
“We still need to prepare, there are still a lot of things to do,” Arabe told reporters.
Arabe said winners for the party-list organizations would be proclaimed in the morning, while winning senators would be scheduled in the afternoon.
She said there is still no confirmation on the attendance of President Rodrigo Duterte for the proclamation.
NBOC resumed session on Sunday at around 2pm and adjourned around 7:30 pm. Ella Dionisio/DMS
