By Maricel V. Cruz
Congress is eyeing the proclamation of the new President and Vice President by May 27, or at the latest May 28.
House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco and Senate President Vicente Sotto III shared this forecast Monday at the sidelines at the Batasan Complex of the initialization of the Consolidation and Canvassing System (CCS) machine that will canvass the Certificates of Canvass (COCs) from the provinces, cities and overseas for the May 9 elections.
“We can actually promise that we’ll get to finish everything by June,” said Speaker Velasco.
He said five to seven days of canvassing may be too long. “Sobra sobra yun,” Velasco said.
In the past, Velasco said the canvassing of votes took long because it was done manually.
“This time it’s gonna be computerized. So you won’t see any more white boards, manual tallies,” he said.
Sotto said the plan is to start the canvassing on the morning of May 24 since the House and Senate are about to resume their sessions the day before, or on May 23.
Sotto said that will be the time the Senate would name its seven representatives to the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC).
The members of the Congressional Canvass Committee acting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) will be presided over by Velasco and Sotto.