MANILA, Philippines - Congress, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, adjourned on Friday with Liberal Party standard-bearer Benigno Aquino III with and his running mate Manuel Roxas II still leading in the presidential and vice presidential race.

Aquino had 61,742 votes while Roxas had 63,582 votes.

Congress has counted 133 certificates of canvass (COCs) from Philippine embassies and consulates around the world as of 8:15 p.m. as of Friday.

A total of 119,833 votes have been counted in the presidential race and 199,494 in the vice presidential race.

(Check the latest results canvassed by Congress here)

Binay camp unfazed by OAV results

The camp of vice presidential candidate Jejomar Binay said it expects him to lead in the race once the COCs from the provinces and cities are canvassed.

Binay has 26,385 votes and is currently in second place in the National Board of Canvassers' tally.

“Mar Roxas will lead today until the completion of the canvass for the overseas absentee votes. But after this, Jojo Binay will take the lead and will sustain it until proclamation day,” Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino senatorial candidate JV Bautista said in a statement.

Bautista noted that there was only a 23% turnout among the 589,830 registered absentee voters.

Once results from the province of La Union come in, which is one of the first 10 COCs in the country to arrive in the Senate, he said Binay will overtake Roxas in the race right away.
“If the canvassers followed the original procedure of first-in, first-out and included La Union in the canvass, Jojo Binay would be shown to lead the canvassing by some 60,000 votes,” he said.

Binay is leading in the vice presidential race in the partial count of the Commission on Elections (Comelec)

(See ABS-CBN tally)

Binay leads by around 800,000 votes over Roxas in the partial Comelec tally.

Local absentee voters want Erap, Binay

In the local absentee elections, Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) standard-bearer Joseph Estrada was the top pick with 8,870.

Binay, his running mate, also topped the local absentee race with 12,995 votes.

Second-placers were former Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, Jr., with 6,199 votes in the presidential election, and Roxas with 4,583 votes in the vice presidential polls.

Local absentee voting allowed the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police personnel to cast their votes in places where they were assigned but not registered.

Congress to expedite canvassing?

Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez suggested of doing away with the opening of the certificates of canvass (COCs).

He found the “systematical, ceremonial, step-by-step” opening of the COCs as impeding the canvassing of votes.

“As far as this joint committee is concerned, in order to expedite the proceedings, we don't have to go through systematically ceremonial, step-by-step opening of the ballot boxes,” he said.

“We should only handle COCs,” he said.

He suggested that the ballot boxes' seal be cracked by the Comelec as well.

The suggestion was not welcomed by Senator Aquilino Pimentel, who said that the process would make the results questionable. Golez maintained it would not sacrifice the quality of the COCs.

Pimentel misinterpreted Golez's suggestion and thought that it would mean letting Comelec and the OAV secretariat headed by Amb. Nestor Padalhin canvass the votes from overseas.

“We cannot allow anyone to do the canvassing for us. Maybe the intention is good,” Pimentel said, disagreeing to the proposal.

House Speaker Prospero Nograles resolved the situation by telling both lawmakers that they would continue with the procedure of opening the ballot boxes containing the COCs from overseas.

The Congress agreed to open multiple ballot boxes at one time, and the results would be read one by one by the House of Representatives Secretary General after counsels and watchers of the candidates would make their motion.

On Monday, Congress will convene at 9 a.m. to open the ballot boxes. At 1 p.m., they will open the seals of the COCs in the joint public hearing.

Votes from manual counting done by Tuesday

Nograles estimated that the counting of votes based on the manual COCs would end on Tuesday.

There are a total of 174 COCs for the manual voting in OAV and in local absentee voting. This figure comprises more than half of the 278 COCs for the May 10 elections. (Read: Nograles: Half of the canvassing job done by Tuesday)

Nograles is confident they can proclaim the new president and vice president by June 15.

Congress received a round of applause for their speedy canvassing. On Thursday, in less than 3 hours, Congress canvassed 5 COCs. On Friday, it canvassed votes from 128 COCs.