Leyte 4th district Rep. Richard Gomez 

What's the real reason for changing the number of "yes" votes for House Bill (HB) No. 9349, or the proposed absolute divorce bill, from 126 to 131? 

Assistant Majority Leader Leyte 4th district Rep. Richard Gomez floated this question and more on Friday, May 24 following reports that the House leadership had corrected the tally of affirmative votes for HB No.9349. 

Gomez was one of the 109 House members who voted "no" to the controversial measure during plenary session May 22. 

“I am puzzled about the change in the number of lawmakers who voted ‘yes’ to [HB] No. 9349 or the proposed Absolute Divorce Act from 126 to 131," he said. 

"They have already recorded the initial number of affirmative votes, and this has been reported and announced in the plenary. But now they are saying that there was an error in the counting. How did that happen?" asked Gomez. 

On Thursday, House Secretary General Reginald Velasco said the secretariat failed to account for five affirmative votes. This raised the total from 126 to 131, while the number of negative votes and abstentions were unchanged (109 and 20, respectively). 

"Was the adjustment made to address statements that the motion to approve HBN 9349 was 'lost' when the body failed to get the majority votes of the members who were present during last [Wednesday's] session?" asked Gomez. 

The Leyte solon was referring to individuals who claimed that HB No.9349's 126 yes votes were less than the combined 129 no votes and abstentions during the actual nominal voting. 

"In my personal assessment, I believe that the approval of the divorce bill was lost when it failed to get the majority approval of the lawmakers present when it was put to a vote. For me, as we speak, HBN 9349 has not been approved on third and final reading," said Gomez, a former movie actor. 

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"Likewise, I would like to be clarified: Is correcting the number of votes outside of the session allowed under House Rules? Because if making errors in the counting of votes is a ‘regular’ thing, how then can we be assured now sure that all the previous votes counted in relation to other measures were correct?' he asked. 

Although Velasco publicly announced the nominal vote result correction, the 126-109-20 (yes-no-abstain) tally will remain official until House members can move to correct it in plenary. 

Congress adjourned sine die after the May 22 plenary session. The earliest that a correction can be made official is in July.