There were 14 remaining certificates of canvass (COC) that have yet to be counted by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the senatorial and partylist races, an official disclosed Monday, May 16.
Comelec acting spokesperson Director John Rex Laudiangco said 159 out of 173 COCs have been canvassed so far for a completion rate of 91.91 percent.
Eleven of the COCs will come from overseas posts and be manually transmitted to the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City where the poll body sits as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC).
These will come from Philippine Embassy (PE) posts in Mexico, Bangladesh, Timor Leste, Myanmar, Copenhagen, Czech Republic, Oslo, Vatican, Nigeria, Iran, and Kenya. A total of 4,554 registered voters were accounted for in the said posts.
Meanwhile, the remaining three COCs will be electronically transmitted and it will come from Hong Kong, North Cotabato, and Lanao del Sur.
The COC from Hong Kong will only cover the votes from Hong Kong itself, Macau, and other parts of Mainland China, accounting for 111,409 registered voters. It will exclude Shanghai where there are 1,191 registered voters since the Philippine embassy there could not hold elections after the city was placed under Covid-19 lockdown.
Meanwhile, the COC from North Cotabato will cover 63 barangays with 86,280 voters. It includes the municipalities of Aleosan (two barangays), Carmen (seven), Kabakan (seven), Midsayap (13), Pigkawayan (12), and Pikit (22).
For Lanao del Sur, the COC will account for 685,643 registered voters.
Laudiangco said that the prevailing decision of the Comelec en banc is to wait for the conduct of special elections in Tubaran, Lanao del Sur on May 24 after a failure of elections was declared in the area due to poll-related violence.
Tubaran covers 11,557 voters but the 12 barangays that were affected by failure of elections only account for 6,291 voters.
“The prevailing decision of the en banc is to wait for the conduct of the May 24 special elections in the 12 precincts in Tubaran to complete the Lanao del Sur (COC) before they can finally transmit,” Laudiangco stated.