Several lawmakers expressed concerns about the high number of nulled votes for vice-president. Based on a computation by the lawyers of vice-presidential candidate Senator Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, it reached a total of 2.6 million nationwide.
“If it’s true that there are 2.6 million 'null votes' for VP [vice-president] and 1 million for president, ang dami naming na-disenfranchise nito,” said House Speaker Prospero Nograles.
“That’s alarming. It may not change the vote for president. But it may affect the vice-presidential race. That might be a good basis for an electoral protest,” Nograles added.
“I was quite surprised with the high number of null votes in many Certificates of Canvass (COCs),” said Senate majority leader Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri during Tuesday's canvassing.
“The observations are not only alarming, it’s a reason for serious concern,” said House majority leader Iloilo Rep. Arthur Defensor.
Game changer?
The 2.6 million nulled votes is 5 times bigger than the half a million lead that the camp of leading vice-presidential candidate Makati City Mayor Jejomar “Jojo” Binay expects to end up with once all the Certificates of Canvass (COCs) are canvassed.
“It is the duty of the Commission on Elections that every vote is counted. The null votes, if we are to see on in Cavite, [totals] 27,203 votes. If we continue this, we will be disenfranchising hundreds of thousands,” said Roxas lawyer Ronald Solis.
Based on the tally of the PPCRV, as of May 18, with around 90% precincts counted, Binay is leading the race by around 800,000 votes. In the official tally of Congress, Binay is leading by 300,000 votes based on 203 COCs, although some have been deferred.
Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, meanwhile, enjoys a big margin over closest rival former President Joseph Estrada. The Comelec tally shows he is leading by 5 million votes. In Congress, he is leading by 3.6 million votes.
There are a total of 278 COCs in the May 10 polls. Unless Congress allows long deliberations on the issues hounding the automated elections, they are expected to finish all 278 COCs by Thursday night and then proclaim the new president and vice-president on Monday. A joint session of Congress is required to proclaim the winners.
Binay camp: It’s the same trend
The Roxas camp believes most of the 2.6 million nulled votes were for Roxas, but the Binay camp disagrees. A breakdown of the null votes is currently not available.
“Bear in mind that Jojo Binay won in 14 out of 17 regions. If he is winning in these 14 regions, you distribute all these null votes will also project the same trend. The conclusion would be the same: that Jojo Binay would still be leading and would still be winning the elections,” said Puwersa ng Masa senatorial candidate JV Bautista.
“They are so desperate and they will grab all straws. This is one straw they are grabbing. But it’s going to be a futile effort because that is not the duty of the canvassing committee,” Bautista added.
Binay lawyer, Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, noted during Tuesday's joint session that there was at least one province, Compostela Valley, where the null votes were high (around 20,000), but Binay won in the province.
There are various possibilities why the votes were nulled by the machines—1) the voters did not shade or cast their vote for a particular position; 2) they over-voted, meaning they voted at least 2 candidates; or, 3) they over-shaded or under-shaded the oval that the machines could not read them.
File election protest?
But lawmakers said Congress, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, is not the proper venue to raise the issue of null votes.
Roxas' camp made several motions to defer the canvassing of results in provinces given the high number of null voters, but they were denied by the NBOC.
“You have to go to the four corners of the COC. You cannot go deeper. You cannot pass judgment,” Nograles explained.
The Binay camp is taking the same stand.
“This is an area of serious concern because it tends to disenfranchise voters. But this is not the proper venue to question that, first of all. The constitutional duty is only to canvass votes which were counted,” Bautista said.
But Nograles said this could be a basis for an election protest after the proclamation. “If there is speed in getting results, there should also be speed in the resolution of election protests,” he said.
“It appears that one of the problems is with the ballot—on the shading of the particular portion of the ballot for the candidates. I’m sure the number of voters will be recovered once it is manual counted. It’s up to the parties concerned,” added Zubiri.
Defensor said during Tuesday’s canvassing that this is an issue that the next Congress should also look into so that it won’t be repeated in the next elections.
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