By Isabella Magno

The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) completed its transparency server operations four days after the 2022 National Elections, on Friday, May 13, with 98.35% of all projected precinct-level results.

According to the total election results processed in the COMELEC Transparency Media Server, as of May 13 3:18 P.M., candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. still leads the presidential race with 31, 104, 175 votes. Meanwhile, running mate Sara Duterte-Carpio is also still leading the vice presidential poll with 31, 561, 948 votes.

After yesterday’s announcement that Duterte-Carpio has accepted the post as Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary, she affirmed today that being DepEd Secretary would be better rather than heading the Department of National Defense so as to avoid questions about her loyalty to the presumptive president Marcos Jr. 

Official Canvassing and Verification of Votes

After receiving 757 randomly chosen ballot boxes across the country yesterday, COMELEC, in collaboration with the Philippine Statistics Authority and other civil society organizations, began a 45-day random manual audit (RMA) of votes.

According to the COMELEC, RMA is a process by which they can further compare the accuracy of printed and electronically-transmitted election returns (ERs). 

Further, the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) resumed the canvassing of votes for senatorial and party-list elections at PICC at 1 P.M., as 121 out of 173 certificates of canvass (COCs) have been tallied. 

In addition, at around 4 P.M. today, COMELEC as the NBOC has suspended the proceedings to 3 P.M. of May 14, Saturday, as there are no more COCs to canvass. Out of 173 COCs, the COMELEC en banc finished canvassing 138. 

Presumptive Cabinet Members

Spokesperson of Duterte-Carpio, Christine Frasco, clarified that while Duterte-Carpio has openly declared her interest in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), no negotiations have yet taken place between the presumptive VP and the present DepEd heads regarding the mandatory regulation of ROTC. 

In line with this, the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition and the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) opposed the decision to appoint Duterte-Carpio as the next education secretary.

“Sara Duterte has no recognition of these problems, that also worsened under her father’s rule, and has no track record in addressing these. How then can she resolve these crises?” ACT Secretary General Raymond Basillo asked, as their group emphasized that the country needs a leader who can recognize the “learning crises”, and Duterte-Carpio’s vision “does not address any of these”.

Other names, on the other hand, have surfaced as the public’s grasp of Bongbong Marcos Jr.’s victory has grown.

His campaign manager, Benhur Abalos, is expected to become the new secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government, while Mikey Arroyo and Rodante Marcoleta are among those said to be among Marcos’s Cabinet members. 

Election-Related Irregularities

Acting COMELEC Spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco cleared the issue regarding how ERs have been transmitted quickly this election by citing two primary reasons. 

Laudiangco mentioned that despite the slow Internet connection in the country, the fast ER transmission is still viable, even comparing it to text messaging and claiming that both do not require a large amount of bandwidth.

In addition, he noted that 99% of the 106,174 vote-counting machines (VCMs) were operational on Election Day. “Ang hindi lang po nakapag-transmit kaagad ay ‘yung hindi po nakahabol doon sa unang bugso ng transmission na 950 [VCMs] na nagka-issue,” he said.