Saturday, May 28, 2016

WATCH | How did Congress manage to pull off fastest canvass in PH history?



See - WATCH | How did Congress manage to pull off fastest canvass in PH history?

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MANILA, Philippines – In just three days, the winners in the May 2016 elections for president and vice president were known, in what was the fastest canvass in Philippine history.

Congress, sitting in joint session as ther National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), convened at 2:00 p.m. on May 25 and finished canvassing the certificates of canvass (COC) at around 7:30 p.m. on May 27.

"I’ve been told this is the fastest," Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, co-chairperson of the joint canvassing panel.

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte was the runaway winner for president, while Camarines Sur Rep. Maria Leonor "Leni" Robredo, in a tension-filled race, took the vice presidential post, beating Sen. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. by 263,473 votes.

The proclamation of the new president and vice president will be in the afternoon of Monday, May 30.

In 2010, the canvassing by the NBOC started on May 25 and the winners – Benigno Aquino III and Jejomar Binay – were proclaimed on June 10. In 2004, it took almost four weeks before Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Noli De Castro were proclaimed on June 23.It was in 2010 when the elections became automated.

For 2016, there were 54.4 million registered voters and theturnout was 81 percent.

In 2010, voters' turnout was 75 percent for the 50.8 million registered voters.
'We just stuck with our mandate'

Why so fast?

Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales, co-chairperson of the joint canvassing committee, said they simply abided by the rules promulgated for the canvassing.

"Under our rules, the basis of the canvass is to get the electronically transmitted COCs [certificates of canvass] and compare them with the physically transmitted COCs to see if the figures match,” he said.

"We just stuck with our mandate," he added. "Those COCs with questions were set aside and the Provincial Board of Canvassers were immediately asked to report in 24 hours to explain."

Pimentel said the canvassing "went smoothly" with the help of the candidates’ lawyers.

"We could not have done it by ourselves," Pimentel said. "The lawyers were all cooperative. So I also give credit to the candidates for having chosen very responsible lawyers to represent them."

Only about a dozen COCs were put under question due to either discrepancies in the electronically transmitted data and the physically delivered COC or missing document. These discrepancies were immediately explained by the Board of Canvassers, while the missing COC was found in another ballot box.

The lawyers of Marcos made frequent manifestations about the "undervotes," which were simply noted by the committee.

Early on, during the approval of the rules, the joint canvassing committee thumbed down proposals to have a separate canvass and proclamation for president and vice president.

Gone were the days of "noted," Gonzales said, referring to the 2004 canvassing during which lawyers for then presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr. would raise questions, and then the presiding officer, Sen. Francis Pangilinan, would just say: "Noted."

Fastest transmission

Chairman Andres Bautista of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said the May 9 exercise had the fastest transmission rate in the country’s history of automated polls.

Four hours after the polling precincts closed, Comelec and its citizen arm, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), reported that 70 percent of the precincts had already transmitted their election returns.

According to the Comelec, in 2010, at around 8:00 p.m. of election day, the transmission was at 17 percent.

Bautista had said that the poll body had assessed where the signal was poor during the 2010 presidential elections and during the 2013 mid-term elections.

Comelec also conducted site surveys to gauge where GPRS technology would work well.Bautista also said he had coordinated with telecommunication companies to ensure that privacy, priority and security will be observed in the polls.

Watch the video below:  (go to the link above).
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