The canvassing of election returns for the presidential and vice presidential races took off with a minor hitch when an absentee ballot box from Marshall Islands caused a security panic after triggering the alarm of a bomb-detecting gadget at the House of Representatives in Quezon City Tuesday.

Hours before Congress convened as the National Board of Canvassers (NBC), security personnel at the Batasan Pambansa complex opened the ballot box containing the manually canvassed returns from the Pacific Islands after it set off the bomb detection alarm.

The Senate and the House of Representatives were expected to limit Tuesday’s proceedings with the approval of the proposed rules of canvass which were they discussed and approved separately last Monday.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Speaker Prospero Nograles opened the joint session at 3 p.m., one hour past the agreed schedule, to officially convene Congress as the NBC.

Noting that quorum has not been constituted in both legislative chambers, the two veteran lawmakers called for a deferment of roll call.

Earlier, the House security reported that one of the 781 ballot boxes hauled in three buses from the Senate was pried open when it set off the alarm of a highly-sensitive bomb detecting gadget.

The ballot boxes were brought to the Lower House in Quezon City where the canvassing of presidential and vice president votes were to be conducted.

Using a highly-sensitive bomb detecting device, House and Senate security personnel were startled when ballot box No. 024 which came from Marshall Islands sounded the bomb alarm.

When pried open, no bomb was found but security officers surmised that there may have been traces of nitrate in the box that triggered the bomb-detector alarm.

The Marshall Islands ballot box was among the 93 boxes that contained the overseas voting election returns from various countries abroad.

Meanwhile, Sen. Edgardo Angara said that if there is evidence of cheating presented during the joint session, it should be referred to the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) because it’s outside the jurisdiction of the canvassing board, Angara pointed out. (With a report from Mario B. Casayuran)