House vows quick canvass
By Jess Diaz (The Philippine Star) Updated May 25, 2010 12:00 AM
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MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives is determined to stick to its target date of June 4 for
proclaiming the winning president and vice president, but a foul-up in the canvass server might delay the
congressional tabulation, Speaker Prospero Nograles said.
“The earlier we finish the canvassing the better for the nation. My target is still June 4. We want to get it over
with,” he told reporters after presiding over a closed-door caucus of House members.
He said the canvassing should proceed smoothly unless “serious problems” are detected in the 276
provincial, city, and overseas certificates of canvass (COCs) containing the votes for president and vice
president.
He said if the canvass is not finished by next Friday, “then we will have to wait for two or three more days.”
Asked what these “serious problems” might be, Nograles said he could not tell until the COCs are actually
opened and examined.
“But we will base the canvass on the COCs pursuant to the Constitution. Only when there are discrepancies
and serious flaws will we consider other documents. But we should be able to reconcile these documents,”
he said.
He said he hoped they would not have to go to the extent of examining the memory cards in the precinct
count optical scan (PCOS) machines as well as the ballots inside the ballot boxes, as allowed under the
proposed rules.
Malfunctioning server
While confident of finishing the canvass on time, Nograles said House Secretary General Marilyn Yap had
informed him that the consolidation and canvassing system (CCS) server malfunctioned when it was
installed and initialized or opened by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile last May 10.
“Want you to know that during initialization of CCS in the House, the number of registered voters printed out
was 256,733,195, and this was noted by JPE (Enrile),” he quoted Yap as saying. There are only more than
50 million registered voters.
Reached by The STAR, Yap said the CCS machine has not been touched since May 10 and would be
opened by Enrile when actual canvassing starts possibly tomorrow.
She said the server is critical in the canvassing since it was supposed to have received the electronic
version of the COCs manually accomplished and delivered by the provincial and city boards of canvassers to
Enrile’s office.
“Under the Constitution, the Senate president is the custodian of the COCs. So he also has control over the
CCS server, although it was installed here because it is here where the canvassing will take place,” she
said.
She added that it is only when the actual canvass begins and the server is opened again that lawmakers
would find out if it is working or not.
Getting ‘techie’
Asked if the problem with the CCS machine could delay the tabulation of votes, Nograles said, “I myself am
confused here. I do not know where this may bring us to.”
He said what the House information technology personnel are saying “is that the entire system may have
been corrupted and may not be giving the correct data, or not functioning correctly, or following a totally
different order. This is getting too ‘techie’ for us to grasp.”
“It appears that the ‘sealed’ envelopes holding the security key, user name and password (of the CCS
server) have been compromised as they were already open when they got to the House. Also the machine
appears to have been initialized before, so it’s not brand new and unused,” he said.
He added that the Senate and the House would have to address the problems with the canvass server
before they could start the tally.
Nograles has asked officials of the Commission on Elections and its automation contractor Smartmatic to
be on hand in case the consolidation computer malfunctions during the canvassing.
Under their draft canvassing rules, the Senate and the House would compare the hard copies of the COCs
with the electronic version to be printed by the CCS server to determine if the number of votes obtained by
candidates is identical.
If there are no discrepancies and members of the Senate-House joint canvassing committee and
candidates’ lawyers do not question the “due execution and authenticity” of the COCs accomplished by the
canvassing boards, such certificates could then be tallied.
The committee may summon members of the canvassing boards to explain discrepancies, if there are any.
The joint tabulation panel will dispose of disputed COCs after tallying the uncontested canvass certificates.
However, in resolving disputes on COCs, the panel, under the proposed rules, “may order the production,
examination and comparison of the compact flash cards (both the main memory and backup cards) from the
(PCOS) machines, the secure digital card from the CCS machine, the audit logs, and the printed or
generated election returns, SOVs (statements of votes) by precincts, city or municipal COCs, SOVs by city or
municipality, and provincial COCs.”
If questions remain unresolved after the examination of these memory cards and documents, the joint
committee “may order the opening of a predetermined number of precinct ballot boxes of that particular city,
district or province.”
The rules do not specify who will “predetermine” the number of ballot boxes to be opened.
Newly elected Sen. Franklin Drilon said the matter of addressing allegations of fraud and cheating by
examining the PCOS machines’ memory cards and election documents is not the job of Congress but of the
Supreme Court functioning as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.
Protracted canvass
“If they examine the memory cards and ballot boxes, they will not be able to finish the canvass and proclaim
the winners by June 30, when the term of office of President Arroyo and other incumbents expires,” he said.
“This could be a protracted canvass,” Drilon told The STAR.
“We could have an unduly delayed canvassing and proclamation, which I hope will not happen,” reelected
Mandaluyong City congressman and House Senior Deputy Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said.
“Senate President Johnny Enrile was correct in saying that Congress should limit itself to the COCs, and
that allegations of fraud should be left to the electoral tribunal,” Drilon said.
It was Drilon, as Senate president, and then Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. who presided over the
congressional canvass of votes for president and vice president in 2004.
Congress proclaimed Mrs. Arroyo and Noli de Castro in the early morning of June 24 after nearly three
weeks of canvassing.
“In any case, I don’t think we will go into examining the CF cards, ERs and ballot boxes. If we do that, there
will really be no proclamation on June 30, and there will be a constitutional and a political crisis because
Mrs. Arroyo cannot extend her stay in office in a holdover capacity. There is no holdover under the
Constitution,” he said.
Majority Leader Arthur Defensor, who will also sit in the canvassing panel, said the canvassing should be
faster than the 2004 tabulation.
“This is because we will canvass the results of an automated election, while in 2004, the voting system was
still manual,” he said in a television interview.
“We will canvass first the COCs that are uncontested and then go into the contested certificates later,” he
said.
Noynoy’s warning
President-apparent Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III of the Liberal Party said he is confident that any attempt
to delay the proclamation would not succeed.
He said his camp would oppose calls to transport all the 76,000 PCOS machines to Congress for the
canvassing, saying it would be a waste of time.
“What’s the connection with the machines? (They are questioning) the date and time (the results were
transmitted), it’s like a fishing expedition,” Aquino said.
“But I think my colleagues from the two chambers are aware that we will have a problem if by June 30, no
one is still proclaimed. Power vacuum is no joke, this will be a big blow to the economy and the country will
not be stable,” Aquino said.
Deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar, meanwhile, said that the LP should “hold themselves to our
standards of evidence before they make statements especially if their statements are potentially
inflammatory.”
He was reacting to the party’s statement alleging that there was a plot to create doubts on the integrity of the
automated polls – the country’s first.
Delay in VP proclamation
Some senators believe that if there would be any delay, it would be in the proclamation of vice president
because of the neck-and-neck fight between Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay and closest rival Sen. Manuel
Roxas II.
Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said there is a possibility that Aquino may be proclaimed ahead of
a vice president.
“We foresee a delay in the proclamation of the vice-president. This might be the first time that actually we
may have to proclaim the president ahead of the vice-president,” Zubiri said.
“It is primordial that we proclaim the president because we don’t want to have a vacuum,” he said.
Zubiri also said the nine-man Senate panel will be composed of himself, Enrile as chairman, Sens. Rodolfo
Biazon, Alan Peter Cayetano, Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Gregorio Honasan, Edgardo Angara, Bong Revilla, and
Joker Arroyo.
Senators Francis Pangilinan, Lito Lapid, Jinggoy Estrada, and Pia Cayetano have been designated
“alternate” members.
“We are going to elect them tomorrow (today) during the joint session of Congress,” Zubiri said. Senators
who ran for president or vice president are barred from taking part in the canvassing.
“By and large, I don’t think that the entire electoral process that happened has been totally contaminated or
tainted, assuming that there was such a contamination or taint that happened. I am not saying that there is,
that’s a matter of proof,” Enrile said.
“If there was, it was sporadic, we will find out eventually as we go along with the canvass,” he added.
Under the proposed rules, Enrile said the joint congressional committee can subpoena people and slap
anybody for contempt if they refuse to attend the session. Enrile vowed the joint canvass would be
“transparent, credible, fair and accurate.”
Former President Joseph Estrada, for his part, said he is hopeful the congressional canvass will reveal the
truth.
“I’m expecting all the best and the truth will come out,” Estrada told The STAR. With Aurea Calica, Christina
Mendez, Marvin Sy, Jose Rodel Clapano
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