Protests slow down canvassing in Valenzuela, Caloocan

Canvassing of votes in Valenzuela and Caloocan is being hampered by a deluge of verbal protests.

"We are hoping that the Board of Canvassers could finish their job by Tuesday," a Valenzuela City Commission on Elections (Comelec) staff, who requested anonymity, told The STAR.

He blamed objections on even "very minute" discrepancy observed during the canvassing of votes., particularly those being raised by the legal counsels of the candidates, observed during the canvassing of votes.

"I don’t know whether they really find some disparity in the counting or they just want to delay the process," the Comelec source said.

As of presstime yesterday, he said that only around 65 to 70 percent of the election returns have been accounted for.

As of 2 a.m. on Friday, Sherwin Gatchalian, of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), was leading by more than 4,000 votes against Magi Gunigundo, of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino, in the mayoralty race.

Gatchalian had 28,524 votes while Gunigundo had only 24,421 votes.

In the vice mayoralty race, available records at the Comelec, also as of May 14, showed that Tony Espiritu was leading with 49,196 votes, followed by Rey Cuadra with 24,925 and Bombit Bernardo with 15, 827 votes.

The congresional race in the first district showed Rex Gatchalian (NPC) leading with 17,717 votes. His rival, incumbent Mayor Jose Emmanuel Carlos had 17,688 while Tony Bularan had 9,531.

In the second district, Tony Serapio was ahead of the race with 16,159 votes. His rivals, Sonny Tiquia and Pablo Lucas, had 15,325 and 12,529 votes, respectively.

In Caloocan City, the Comelec already proclaimed Luis "Baby" Asistio as the winning congressional candidate in the city’s second district on Saturday night.

Asistio bested his two rivals, Councilors Benedicto Gonzales and Tino Bagus.

Gonzales called on his fellow local politicians for unity and to give the winning candidates a chance to prove themselves as the deserving officials voted by the residents.