Opposition still expected to walk out after canvass

The joint committee may have all but finished its canvassing of votes, yet Malacañang is still anticipating a walkout by opposition legislators in a bid to preempt the proclamation of the president and vice president.

Presidential spokesman for campaign issues and concurrent Housing Secretary Michael Defensor believes the walkout will take place during the post-canvass plenary debates.

The joint committee is expected to spend two days finalizing its report and consulting with election officials before it submits the canvass results to the plenary.

Defensor, a former congressman, said that in theory the debates should last no more than six hours but in practice they could stretch out to two days.

"On Wednesday and Thursday there will be debates by the House and Senate, and this is when we expect (the walkout)," he said. "In the end there is still a possibility that they would walk out."

Defensor expects the entire process to end on Thursday as he sees no further reason for the opposition to delay the proclamation.

He said that the opposition may have realized the futility of their attempts to discredit the canvass and portray the elections as plagued by fraud.

Defensor downplayed the walkout staged by the lawyers of the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP) last Friday because of alleged harassment by the administration.

The walkout was staged after KNP lead counsels Harriet Demetriou and Rufus Rodriguez were charged by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police with illegal detention and grave coercion.

Defensor said that the walkout by the opposition’s legal team was unwarranted as only two of its 34 members were charged.

Members of the opposition allied with the KNP have repeatedly denied they would stage a walkout even as they maintained that the canvassing was full of anomalies.