Proclamation Of President, VP Within May – Sotto

The newly elected president and vice president may be proclaimed within the month, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said yesterday.

Speaker Lord Allan Velasco said on Monday the new president and vice president will be proclaimed by May 27 or 28.

Velasco said Congress has started preparations for the official canvassing of votes for the presidential and vice presidential races by the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC).

Velasco and Sotto will preside over the NBOC.

Should there be no questions on the Certificates of Canvass (COCs) and Election Returns (ERs), the proclamation of the top two highest elective posts of the land will be set immediately.

“It’s possible that if we will start on May 24, 25 and 26, on the third day is 26 or 27, it looks promising that we will be able to proclaim by the 27th. On the 28th, the latest,” Sotto said in an interview over ABS-CBN.

“As long as there are no questions too. Anyway it’s computerized, automated so we don’t foresee any problem,” said Sotto.

Sotto said the plan is to start in the morning of May 24, with the resumption of the session on May 23.

“We will probably have to do business during that day (May 23). As a matter of fact, that’s the only time that we will be able to officially name the seven representatives from the Senate.”

Based on partial and unofficial tally, frontrunners Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte have won by a landslide.

Sotto said the Senate is ready to receive the COCs and ERs for president and vice president after the closing of the election precincts.

He said health standards set by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) will be strictly observed and all employees involved in the canvassing need to be fully vaccinated.

Velasco has vowed a quick and efficient canvassing by the NBOC as Congress performs “our constitutional mandate to receive and canvass the votes for the two highest leaders of the country, our next president and vice president.”

The Speaker believes it would no longer be as slow as the canvassing of votes in the past elections, which was done manually.

Under the 1987 Constitution, Congress should open all the certificates of canvass not later than 30 days after election day.

Highest voter turnout

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday reported over 80 percent voter turnout in the May 9 elections.

Comelec Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said the poll body is looking at the highest ever voter turnout of at least 81 percent.

“We have around 80.38 voter turnout. We are expecting it to increase,” Casquejo said, adding that about 1,000 clustered precincts have yet to transmit election results.

Casquejo attributed the high turnout of voters to the desire of the people to pick new leaders.

Acting Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiangco said the highest voter turnout was recorded amid the pandemic.

“In 2016, there were no restrictions. Now we have the pandemic but Filipinos still got out of their homes and voted,” Laudiangco observed.

He said the Comelec also posted a high 88 percent voter turnout for local absentee voting.

Casquejo said the fast transmission of election returns was a breakthrough as the Comelec received 80 percent of the ERs just three hours after the close of polling precincts.

He denied that there was cheating in the elections as some netizens raised doubts about the votes received by Vice President Leni Robredo that were consistently behind Marcos by a wide margin.

The random manual audit of votes will begin today, the Comelec said. – Edu Punay, Mayen Jaymalin, Evelyn Macairan