Negros Occ canvassers to correct Roxas votes

BACOLOD CITY — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has directed the Negros Occi—dental board of canvassers to reconvene and correct the "manifest error" in the number of votes of administration senatorial candidate Mar Roxas committed by the municipal board of canvassers of Valladolid town.

The Comelec en banc issued Resolution No. 7152 last Tuesday in response to the request of regional Comelec director Victor Gaborne.

Gaborne sought authority to allow the provincial board of canvassers to reconvene and make the correction in the votes for Roxas.

The Valladolid certificate of canvass showed Roxas with 3,010 votes when, in fact, he garnered 11,955 votes.

The error was noted on page 3 of the certificate of canvass.

The corrections will then be sent to the National Board of Canvassers for inclusion in the national count, Gaborne said.

Provincial election officer Marsha Cordero said the errors on page 3 of the Valladolid certificate did not only involve Roxas’ votes but those of five other senatorial candidates and most of the party-list groups.

Roxas, who has consistently ranked first in the canvassing in the different towns and cities of Negros Occidental, landed 15th in the uncorrected Valladolid certificate of canvass.

Two of those affected were Sen. Aquilino Pimentel who had 4,646 votes but ended up with 1,114, and Sen. John Osmeña who had 4,383 votes but ended up with only 1,023 in the provincial canvass.

Cordero said the mistake in the entries on page 3 of the Valladolid COC appeared to be clerical in nature.

Valladolid election officer Eduardo Bermudez was in Manila to explain the errors.