Four party list groups said they will file an urgent manifestation and urgent motion on Saturday asking the Commission on Elections to suspend the national canvassing and the proclamation of the winning candidates until the poll body could address the alleged irregularities raised on the conduct of the 2019 automated election.
The partylists are Append, Partido Lakas ng Masa, Murang Kuryente, and ANG Nars.
“There is a lot of uncertainty, which has not been answered [in the 2019 polls],” Aaron Pedroso Jr., legal counsel of PLM Party list, told reporters in a press conference.
Among their concerns is the zero-votes their party lists got from the elections, the so called glitches in the vote counting machines and Secure Digital cards among others.
To resolve this the group is asking for system and audit logs from the vote counting machines, internet protocols, mobile numbers of SIM cards for the transmission of elections results, among others.
Append Party list legal counsel Romel Bagares said their petition will actually help bring credibility to the outcome of the 2019 polls by eliminating speculations.
“It will take a long process to accomplish this, but it is possible,” Bagares said.
Expanded audit
Akbayan Partylist also filed a separate petition asking Comelec to include in its random manual audit (RMA) for the 2019 polls the position of party lists.
Currently, the RMA only covers the senators, congressmen, and mayors in 715 randomly selected cities and municipalities nationwide.
Former Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and Akbayan Party chairperson emeritus Etta Rosales said they formalized the petition to ensure the credibility of the outcome for party lists.
“Why leave out the partylists from manual audits? After alarming votes of missing votes in receipts or disenfranchised voters, Comelec should include party list votes in random manual audit process,” said Rosales.
Joining Akbayan’s petition are eight other progressive groups, including Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa, and National Union of Workers in Hotel Restaurant and Allied Industries.
87 percent complete
On Friday, the Comelec en banc sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) finally canvassed 146 or 87 percent of the 167 total certificate of canvass (COC) for the 2019 polls.
Comelec spokesperson James B. Jimenez said their tentative schedule for proclamation is on May 19, 2019.
Comelec initially targeted separate dates of proclamation for senators and party lists.
As of 7:16 pm of May 17, the top 12 senators are Cynthia Villar with 23,610,580; Grace Poe with 20,711,849; Christopher “Bong” Go with 19,030,884; Pilar “Pia” Cayetano with 18,550,012 votes; and Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa with 17,567,258 votes
Also included in the Magic 12 in the senate are Juan “Sonny” Angara with 17,027,333 votes; Lito Lapid with 15,778,223 votes; Maria “Imee” Marcos with 14,775,948 votes; Francis Tolentino with 14,387602 votes; Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel with 13,563,083 votes; Nancy Binay with 13,453,117 votes; and Ramon “Bong” Revilla with 13,442578 votes.
For party lists the top five are ACT-CIS with 2,487,362 votes; Bayan Muna with 1,065,833 votes; Ako Bicol with 1,038,006 votes; Cibac with 896,571 votes; and And Probinsyano with 713,710 votes.