MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections sitting as the National Board of Canvassers Thursday night proclaimed the top six senatorial winners, overruling a call by the United Nationalist Alliance to hold it on account of unresolved questions about the slow transmission of results.
The proclamation proceeded in the face of a formal opposition filed by noted election lawyer Romy Macalintal, who said the Comelec was violating its own May 6, 2013 resolution governing the conduct of the work of the National Board of Canvassers which tallies results for the Senate and party-list races. Macalintal was representing 12th placer, UNA candidate Gregorio Honasan.
Proclaimed were five senators-elect from Team PNoy: Ma. Grace Poe-Llamanzares, Loren Legarda, Alan Peter Cayetano, Francis Joseph Escudero and Juan Edgardo Angara; and one from UNA, Nancy Binay who was fifth.
Binay, daughter of Vice President Jejomar Binay, was absent at the proclamation, apparently to signal the UNA’s continuing opposition to the Comelec decision to proceed with the proclamation of the Top 6.
Poll watchdogs had also struck a cautionary stance after questions were raised by the unexplained slowdown in electronic transmission of results from many areas, forcing the official count to crawl on Wednesday.
“The commission en banc has just signed the Certificate of Proclamation,” Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr., said Thursday night after the Clerk of Court, Maria Josephina E. dela Cruz, announced the authority given by the Constitution and Omnibus Election Code to proclaim winning candidates.
In the absence of Binay, Brillantes asked her lawyer present in the canvassing, to accept the Certificate of Proclamation, in behalf of the senator-elect.
The ranking as of post time culled from 72 Certificates of Canvass (CoCs):
| Grace Poe | 6,978,111 |
| Loren Legarda | 6,405,625 |
| Alan Peter Cayetano | 5,989,369 |
| Francis Escudero | 5,944,573 |
| Nancy Binay | 5,787,423 |
| Juan Edgardo Angara | 5,593,601 |
Early birds
As early as 6:30 p.m. staff and family members of five Team P-Noy winners started arriving to witness the proclamation rites.
First to arrive was incumbent Senator Edgardo Angara, who said they didn’t expect his son, Juan Edgardo (Sonny), to finish sixth in the polls.
The younger Angara arrived next with his wife Tootsie, mother-in-law and his three children.
Next came incumbent Senator Loren Legarda, who landed in second place. She was with her son Leandro and a yaya.
Escudero arrived with girlfriend, Heart Evangelista. He wore a simple white polo barong; and Heart, a white cocktail dress.
With senator-elect Ma. Grace Poe-Llamanzares was her mother, actress Susan Roces. Ms. Poe wore a white beige cocktail dress with embroidery around the neckline.
Macalintal opposition
Meanwhile, election lawyer Romulo Macalintal filed an objection/opposition to the ruling issued by Comelec in proclaiming six Senate winners in violation of Section 4 and Section 18 of Resolution No. 9686, dated May 6, 2013, issued by the poll body.
Section 4 of that resolution which governs the canvass proceeding of the National Board of Canvassers provides that the Board “shall canvass the Certificates of Canvass (COCs) for Senators and Party-list Representatives, and thereafter proclaim the winning candidates.”
Macalintal, quoting the resolution, said, “Section 18 of the same resolution provides that “upon completion of the canvass, the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) and the watchers if available shall certify the FINAL PRINTOUT of Canvass Report.”
He said the proclamation of winning senatorial and party-list candidates must be “on the basis of the Certified Final Canvass Report” which is not yet present.
This clearly shows that the Board “has no authority to make a partial proclamation on mere assumption that the remaining number of uncanvassed votes will not materially affect the standing of the candidates to be partially proclaimed,” Macalintal said.
“The authority of the Board is merely to terminate its proceedings if the numbers of votes in the missing COCs would no longer affect the result of the elections,” the lawyer added.
Macalintal is representing UNA candidate Gregorio Honasan, who is, based on latest tally, hanging on to the 12th slot with 4,667,276, ahead of fellow UNA bet Richard Gordon with 4,479,287.—or a lead of 187,989 votes.
Ref: http://www.interaksyon.com
Tags: Philippines, proclamation, senators 2013
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