Broken CF cards delay proclamation of QC councilor

MANILA, Philippines -Four days after the May 13 midterm polls, the Quezon City Board of Canvassers (BOC) finally proclaimed Thursday night the last winning councilor in the city’s second district.

The BOC announced the victory of Liberal Party (LP) candidate Estrella Valmocina, who won against number seven candidate Al Herrera Tolome of the United Nationalist Alliance with a margin of 3,038 votes.

The proclamation of the last winning councilor in the second district was delayed due to broken compact flash (CF) cards in 11 clustered precincts in the city, seven of which were in the second district.

BOC chairman Jovencio Balanquit said that while the votes in the four precincts outside district two were not expected to change the results in their respective council races, the case is different in the second district.

He said they had to wait for replacement CF cards as the untallied votes in district two could change the outcome of the results in the council race.

Prior to the arrival of the replacement cards, Valmocina led only by about 3,000 votes. Around 4,000 votes had yet to be tallied at that time.

Upon the arrival of the replacement CF cards at around 3 p.m., election inspectors started “re-feeding” the uncanvassed ballots to PCOS machines at the canvassing center at the city hall. The results were then transmitted to the local BOC server.

Balanquit assured the security of the uncanvassed ballots, which were brought to the local Comelec office from their respective precincts following the discovery of the broken CF cards.

After canvassing the votes from the first two of the seven precincts from District 2, results showed that Valmocina maintained her 3,000-vote lead against Tolome. This prompted the BOC to proclaim her victory, saying the rest of the untallied votes from the district will not be able to affect the results.

On Tuesday, the BOC already proclaimed re-electionist Mayor Herbert Bautista and his running mate re-electionist Vice Mayor Josefina Belmonte as winners of the midterm polls. The board also proclaimed all LP congressional candidates in their respective districts.

They were incumbent Councilor Francisco Calalay (District 1), re-electionist Rep. Winston Castelo (District 2), re-electionist Rep. Bolet Banal (District 3), re-electionist Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. (District 4), incumbent Councilor Alfred Vargas (District 5), and lawyer Kit Belmonte (District 6).

Most of the LP candidates in the city council also won in their respective bids.