Poll canvassing opens, adjourns

All dressed up with nowhere to go.

This was how the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc appeared yesterday as it convened as the National Board of Canvassers only to find out there was nothing to canvass.

Smarting from criticism that it was conducting a slow vote count, the seven Comelec commissioners met at 11:28 a.m. at the Philippine International Convention Center on Roxas Boulevard to canvass the results of the senatorial and party-list elections.

But 40 minutes later, Comelec Chairman Alfredo Benipayo had to adjourn the canvassing and reset it to 10 a.m. today because not a single certificate of canvass had arrived even from within Metro Manila.

Certificates of canvass are official tabulations of votes and are accomplished by district, municipal, city and provincial boards of canvassers based on the ballot count at the precinct level.

According to Comelec Executive Director Mamasapunod Aguam, at least 10 committees were created to assist the poll body in canvassing votes, which will also be attended by the lawyers of political parties and candidates during the just-concluded elections.

Aside from a supervisory committee, there are also committees for reception and safekeeping, secretariat, tabulation, encoding, audit, control and releasing, security, legal panel and mass media.

The poll body has also passed Comelec Resolution No. 4343, providing for the rules of the national canvassing.

Among the senatorial candidates, the best represented were re-electionist Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile and former Press Secretary Ricardo Puno Jr., who had two lawyers each.

Former Comelec commissioner Manolo Gorospe will represent the administration People Power Coalition (PPC).

Candidates, voters and election lawyers described the legal process as "long and tedious," which could have been alleviated by automated ballot counting and computerization.

However, the Comelec failed to enforce the law on the computerization of local elections, forcing it to conduct yet another manual vote count.

As if the slow process were not enough, Comelec Commissioner Luzviminda Tancangco proposed that another committee be formed to authenticate and verify the form and substance of certificates of canvass.

But other commissioners said Tancangco’s proposal was superfluous since such certificates can be authenticated and verified internally without unnecessarily delaying the national canvassing.

Instead, the Comelec en banc directed the poll body’s departments on barangay affairs and election records and statistics to provide the commissioners the necessary data from their offices.

According to Commissioner Resurreccion Borra, each commissioner will receive the information they may need to authenticate and verify the certificates.

"So there was no more need for an authentication and verification committee, all these will be internal and will no longer be part of the national canvassing process," Borra said.

Tancangco also questioned Comelec Resolution No. 4343, claiming she did not participate in the promulgation of the rules for the national canvassing.

She also denied that she proposed the use of the certificates of votes as basis of the national canvassing, which would further delay the process.

"We’re sticking with the provincial certificate of canvass or the city certificates of canvass," she said.

Tancangco has been repeatedly blamed by Comelec officials for the supposed lack of preparations for Monday’s local and congressional polls. Even former chairwoman Harriet Demetriou blamed Tancangco for failing to implement a public information drive on the continuing registration of voters despite the availability of funds for the purpose.

The failed public information drive resulted in the disenfranchisement of some 4.5 million first-time voters.

Comelec officials said Tancangco is also responsible for the Comelec’s precinct mapping project, involving some P280 million, which remains to be unfinished.

The absence of precinct mapping capability was identified as among the problems that prevented the Comelec from holding a special registration for the 4.5 million disenfranchised first-time voters.

Comelec sources said Tancangco feels that Benipayo is responsible for leaking these irregularities to the media and has allegedly coopted other Estrada appointees to the poll body to vote against Benipayo.