Fast and furious: the vice presidential race

Filipinos await the final judgment on the automated national elections as Congress, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) aims to finish counting of the five remaining certificates of canvass (CoCs) early this week.

As mandated by Constitution, the Senate and the House of Representatives convened in a joint session to count votes reflected in COCs. Canvassing for the top two posts is expected to be finished tonight.

As of Monday, 5 pm, the NBOC is still waiting for the transmittal of votes from the special elections in Lanao del Sur while canvassing of votes from Davao City was suspended. Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile said they may have to require manual transmittal of the remaining votes to finish the canvassing. "We have to finish the tally this week. We cannot go beyond this week," declares Enrile.

The proclamation of winners is expected to take place on June 9, Wednesday. Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said they will still have to consolidate data gathered during the canvassing and draft a committee report which shall be presented to Congress.

While Senator Benigno 'Noynoy' Aquino III is the apparent next president, with a margin of almost 4 million votes over his closest contender, former president Joseph Estrada, his right hand still cannot be identified as the race for the vice-presidency is stuck in a close, undecided fight between senator Manuel A. Roxas II and Makati mayor Jejomar C. Binay.

Null votes

Partial and unofficial tallies show that Binay is leading the race over Roxas. But conceding is far from Roxas' plan. In fact, his legal counsels have raised the issue of null votes during the canvassing. They demanded that null votes reaching almost 3 million should be counted.

The canvassing in Congress showed the nullification of almost 2.6 million votes for the presidential and vice-presidential position. These are votes which were not counted by the machine because of either over-shading, under-shading, over-voting or under-voting (or no vote at all).

Roxas’ camp has already raised alarm over the large number of null votes, as well as those recorded in areas known to be their bailiwicks. Even House Speaker Prospero Nograles and Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said the number of null votes was “alarming” and should be looked into.

Nograles expressed that the null votes could affect the vice presidential race because Binay is ahead of Roxas by only about 300,000 votes. Furthermore, he said that this “might be a good case for an electoral protest.”

The two camps even showed in paid advertisements their own projections of garnered votes per region. With only a matter of hours, Congress will proclaim the winning president but the rivaling vice-presidential bets have geared up for an intensifying count war.

Despite the deliberations, both Congress and Comelec turned down Roxas' bid to count the null votes.

Roxas led in pre-election surveys but fell second next to the Makati mayor when the actual ballots were cast, according to tallies released by the Comelec and the poll watchdog Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV).

Inquirer reports that although the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has tallied 99 percent of the CoCs for the senatorial and party-list elections and can count the votes for the vice presidential and presidential races, the poll body is not releasing the initial results for the second highest elective post. Comelec Commissioner Lucenito Tagle says that it is not the poll body’s job to release the results. He said the public must wait for Congress to finish canvassing and declare the official results.

With the use of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines in the first ever automated elections last May 10, the results were expected to be earlier than previous manual elections. Although the Comelec delivered hasty results for the local positions as well as national positions (presidential, senatorial and partylist groups), the battle for the vice-presidency is tainted with doubts.

Earlier, whistle-blower tagged as “Koala Bear” claimed that the election was rigged. Allegedly involved were Binay and Roxas. Acoording to the whistleblower, Binay paid P1 billion to the PCOS “players” to ensure his lead at that of his chosen presidential candidate.

The canvassing is expected to end today with only 5 remaining COCs to be tallied, but either of the top two contending vice-presidential aspirants can celebrate yet. Lawyers and officials of Roxas’ party are focusing on demanding a manual audit by Congress in contested areas. Commission on Elections has recently denied the idea of manual counting for null votes. Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal however said that those bent on manually counting the nullified votes can always file an election protest with the poll body.

The fast cheater or winner?

Despite allegations of rigging the first automated election in the country for his possible victory, vice-presidential aspirant Jejomar Binay is positive that he will clinch the second most powerful seat.

In his paid ad, Binay claimed that he is the apparent winner based on results of the counts from the Commission on Elections, Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, the ABS-CBN-STI parallel manual count, ABS-CBN-Pulse Asia Exit Poll, and the TV5-SWS exit poll.

With regards to the Roxas protest on null votes, Binay's legal counsel, Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III said that their camp was protesting a “non-issue" that might mislead the public. Pimentel said millions of votes were automatically considered null because of the voter’s abstention or error in voting. “It is a right of a person not to vote."

The furious loser?

Although the Comelec ruled that there is no way that the null votes can be counted, Roxas’ camp can still protest Binay’s victory (if the latter wins the Congress tally) by filing a protest before the poll body.

The probe into the alleged massive electronic cheating led by the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms and Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin claimed that the cheating might have been operated by Comelec insiders. The committee absolved the Smartmatic from any accountability.

In case Binay is proclaimed as vice president, Roxas may also file his case before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.

Photo from POC files. Some rights reserved.

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