The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Wednesday, May 25, that it will look into the cases of missing certificates of canvass (COCs) that occured during the canvassing of votes of the House of Representatives and Senate.
Commissioner Marlon Casquejo stated during a press briefing that the matter has been resolved and COCs for Sultan Kudarat and Surigao Del Sur. He mentioned that the two provincial election supervisors (PES) were called via zoom who were able to produce an electronic copy of the COCs to be canvassed.
Casquejo added that the PES are in Manila on Wednesday to submit the hard copies of the COC.
"Those COCs were inadvertently not placed inside the ballot box intended for the Congress for the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) for the Congress for the position of President or Vice President," he said.
"For whatever reasons, it's not acceptable to us because it's part of our General Instructions (GI) in our resolution that the first copy should be put in the ballot box intended for the NBOC," he added.
Casquejo also mentioned that they will look into the incident on how it transpired whether it was due to fatigue or whatever reason. Yet he stated that it is not an excuse for them since it's one of the clear jobs of the PES.
He also shared that they will not have any difficulty finding copies of the COCs since there are 14 of them. If it were to happen again, according to Casquejo, it can be easily addressed since the Comelec's Deputy Executive Director for Administration (DEDA) is present in the joint session of the Congress.
"We do apologize to the NBOC for President and Vice President for this unfortunate incidents," Comelec Acting Spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco said.