MANILA – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced the suspension of proclamation of “Magic 12” senators and party-list representatives in the recently concluded midterm elections.
Comelec director Frances Arabe on Saturday said they decided to suspend the scheduled Sunday afternoon proclamation as they needed to finish the certificates of canvass (COCs).
“For the schedule of proclamation, hindi po tuloy,” Arabe said. “We are not ready to proclaim yet so the schedule will be announced.”
“Depends if we will be able to finish all the COCs,” she added.
Arabe said there were at least 13 COCs pending to be transmitted to the poll body from the following areas: Lanao del Sur, Isabela, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Washington DC, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oslo, Abuja, Nairobi, Tehran, and persons deprived of liberty.
“There might be some pending issues also either on the transmission, SD card,” Arabe said referring to secure digital (SD) card.
“The COCs are going to be manually delivered here from certain areas. That is why they must fly here, ‘yung mga abroad,” she added.
“‘Yung mga electronic transmission alam na natin ‘yung Lanao del Sur, Isabela, Zamboanga del Norte ‘eto ‘yung problematic ang vote counting machines and SD cards. It was already resolved, undergoing the batch feeding,” Arabe said.
Based on the partial count on Sunday, Villar and Poe continued to hold on to top two spots followed by former special assistant to the president Bong Go, Taguig representative Pia Cayetano and former Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa.
Also in the “Magic 12” were Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, Manuel “Lito” Lapid, Imee Marcos, Francis Tolentino, Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel and Nancy Binay. /PN
