The Commission on Elections (Comelec), sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBoC), is looking to proclaim the last three winning senatorial candidates as early as Monday at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City.

Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez said the last three of the 12 slots could be proclaimed Monday if they manage to get substantial votes.

“We expect them (last three winning senators) to be proclaimed on Monday (May 17) considering that there will be no proclamations Sunday but we will continue receiving transmission results from the field… so, hopefully we can get enough numbers to proclaim senators-elect,” he said.

At the end of Saturday, there were still around three million uncanvassed votes that may decide the winning count for the last three in the 12-slot senatorial race.

Jimenez, though, said it may not be necessary to wait for the transmittal of all the three million canvassed votes before proceeding with the final proclamations once the last three winners earn a substantial number of votes.

“Our basis is if it’s not going to be significant in the final count, then, we will start proclaiming,” he said. “Probably, (there would be proclamations) by afternoon (Monday), since the canvassing is continuing throughout the day.”

Last Saturday, the NBoC proclaimed the first nine winning senators who will serve until 2016 namely; Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Jr. (Lakas-Kampi CMD); Sen. “Jinggoy” Estrada (Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino); Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago (People’s Reform Party); former Senate President Franklin Drilon (Liberal Party); Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile (Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino); Sen. Pia Cayetano (Nacionalista Party); Rep. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. (Nacionalista Party); former senator Ralph Recto (Liberal Party); and former senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III (Nationalist People’s Coalition).

NEW PRESIDENT, VP BY FIRST WEEK OF JUNE

As this developed, the NBoC will proclaim a new president on the first week of June or earlier, Speaker Prospero Nograles said over the weekend.

Nograles said Filipinos should expect the formal proclamation of the winners in the presidential and vice presidential race as a result of the decision of congressional leaders to move the opening of the national canvassing of votes a week earlier than the original May 31 schedule.

“I don’t see any hitches in the canvassing. We are ready to make the proclamation on or before June 4,” Nograles said in an interview.

On Friday, Nograles and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile agreed to convene Congress as the national board of canvassers on May 24, saying that no constitutional provisions will be violated by such agreement.

Nograles said the early results of the elections courtesy of poll automation pave the way for reaching such decision.

“We are ready with the draft rules of canvassing that will be approved upon convening of the joint session,” he said, adding that the Batasan Pambasa building which houses the Lower House will be the venue.

LONGER WAIT FOR PARTY-LIST GROUPS

Meanwhile, the public may have to wait a little longer for the proclamation of the 57 party-list seats at the House of Representatives since there are still millions of votes to be canvassed.

“If you proclaim while the whole that you have is low, your two percent is correspondingly lower. You might qualify (a) numerous group. Then, if the total percentage of votes rose, your two percent will also rise. This might exclude some groups that you have earlier proclaimed winners,” explained Jimenez.

“That’s why you have to wait until you have a better idea of how big the whole actually is,” he added.
Under the party-list system, party-list representatives must comprise 20 percent of the House membership, which is about 57 seats.

AUTO POLLS, A SWEET SUCCESS – COMELEC

Meanwhile, Jimenez described as sweet the success of the first nationwide automated elections in the country because the Comelec was able to prove its critics wrong.

“We proved their worst predictions wrong. If we had followed everything they said and would come up with the same solution, it would not have been as sweet and satisfying as this one because this is something that we decided we wanted to do. We stood by our guns and we did it the way we wanted to do it and it succeeded,” he said.

“If we did what they wanted us to do, then we only proved one thing: that we know how to follow instructions. But we did it the way we wanted to do it, the way we said we would do it. So we proved them wrong. We succeeded. And this makes victory sweeter,” he added.

Jimenez said the minor glitches in the system such as the delay in the transmission are somewhat expected especially with human participation.

“You needed people to activate things. You needed people to move cards around. That’s where the errors are cropping up and not in the system. The system, itself, worked perfectly, which is the reason why there are significantly fewer errors and significantly more results available from the precinct transmission,” he said.

Days prior to the May 10 polls, the Comelec had already stopped answering in public the criticisms thrown by election watchdogs such as the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (Cenpeg), KontraDaya, the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) and the Concerned Citizens’ Movement (CCM) and instead chose to address last-minute problems hounding the automated election system (AES).

The poll body had, then, said that the best way to prove critics wrong is to stop talking and simply doing it.

Last week, a group of foreign observers, Namfrel and KontraDaya have issued separate statements giving their approval to the overall conduct of the May 10 polls.

Asked if they would consider the statements of their critics as an additional feather in the cap, Jimenez said not really.

“If they feel they are humbled by it, that’s their prerogative. As far as we are concern, we are only concerned by the fact that we did it right. And that’s the most important thing for us. Everything else, we are all good,” Jimenez said.

WITHHOLD PAYMENT TO SMARTMATIC – SPEAKER

Speaker Prospero Nograles Sunday asked the Commission on Elections to withhold full payment to Smartmatic-Total Information Management until the joint Congress oversight committee has certified that the firm has fulfilled all its obligations as provided in its P7.2 billion contract with the government, including the guarantee of clean election count under the poll automation system.

Nograles said the House contingent in the joint panel of lawmakers has already been alerted to conduct random or full manual audit of ballots to determine if Smartmatic-TIM delivered what was expected of the company during the May 10 elections.

“Smartmatic must make public who they sub-contracted this automation and flash cards to,” said Nograles as reports of alleged cheating started trickling in at headquarters of losing candidates.
The camp of presidential candidate Joseph Estrada, who is running second to national poll count leader Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, has claimed that compact flash cards containing pre-programmed data of certain candidates were being peddled at fantastic prices a week before the elections.

Three other presidential bets – Sen. Jamby Madrigal, Olongapo City JC de los Reyes and Nicanor Perlas – have also aired suspicions of rigged elections. (With a report from Ben Rosario)