THE results of the canvassing by the Joint Canvassing Committee of Congress for the presidential and vice presidential elections are literally keeping Marcos supporters at the edge of their seats.
This was very evident in the gallery of the session hall of the House of Representatives on Thursday when the lead of Bong Bong Marcos (BBM) over presidential candidate Leni Robredo of over a million votes at the early part of the canvassing that day was trimmed down to merely 83,240 as the canvassing ended for the day at 10:03 p.m.
The votes started to whittle down especially when the Certificates of Canvass (COCs) of Cebu and Negros Occidental were read and admitted into the final tally. The huge numbers in favor of Robredo drew audible gasps and “oh no’s” from the gallery. A lot of people started taking pictures of the tally board even if the rules of the Joint Canvassing Committee prohibited it. In Cebu, Marcos garnered only 196,943 votes as against Robredo’s 590,777. In Negros Occidental, Marcos merely had 119,149 votes while Robredo got 614,440 votes.
By the time you’re reading this, the final results of the canvassing might already be out. Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, co-chair of the joint canvassing committee, told press people as the canvassing on Thursday wrapped up for the day that the winners could be proclaimed on Monday, May 30, when the system generates the final report which will be submitted to the joint session.
The Joint Canvassing Committee was set to finish canvassing the remaining 49 unopened provincial and city COCs plus three suspended COCs, yesterday, Day 3 of the canvass, “even if it would have to go beyond 12:00 midnight to do it,” Atty. Valery Dolojan, Chief of Legislative Affairs of the Office of Senator Koko Pimentel, said.
The Marcos camp has raised to the Joint Canvassing Committee the issue of the high number of undervotes for the position of Vice President in the elections, even as Atty. Romeo Macalintal, lawyer of Robredo, repeated a number of times his manifestation that the high number of undervotes was natural, citing a Supreme Court decision. Atty. Didagen Dilangalen, lawyer of Marcos, however said that the argument was out of place because the jurisprudence cited does not involve automated elections.
Marcos said that in such a hotly-contested election the high number of undervotes—or not vote for the particular position—is “unusual and a cause for concern.”
As we say in Tagalog, “abangan ang kapana-panabik na kabanata.” Nothing is more suspenseful than Day 3, when we finally find out who the vice president of the Republic is going to be. BEEN THERE DONE THAT/JOSEPHINE CODILLA
