Drilon: Canvassing can start today, hopefully

Canvassing of votes for president and vice president may "hopefully" start this morning, Senate President Franklin Drilon said yesterday.

"Barring another note-passing and shut-up incident, we hope we can approve the proposed canvassing rules tonight and start the canvass tomorrow," Drilon said in an interview, reiterating what he said during the regular forum of the Manila Overseas Press Club at the Ristorante La Dolce Fontana in Greenhills, San Juan yesterday morning.

Per agreement between the majority and the minority in both chambers of Congress, the rules were scheduled to be approved Wednesday night. But approval was derailed when opposition Maguindanao Rep. Didagen Dilangalen raised hell after a supporter of President Arroyo sent him a note telling him to stop raising questions about the rules and to just "shut up."

A heated exchange between Dilangalen and Deputy Speaker Raul Gonzalez, who was presiding over the session jointly with Senate President Pro Tempore Juan Flavier, ensued. Dilangalen and Gonzalez exchanged shouts of, "Shut up! Shut up!"

Drilon said the incident was embarrassing not only for the House of Representatives but also for the entire Congress that was meeting in joint session as the National Board of Canvassers.

"It should not have happened but it happened, and it is now part of our history," he said.

"Uminit si Gonzalez kaya pinatulan niya si Digs (Gonzalez got angry, so he quarreled with Digs)," he noted.

Drilon said there was no chance they could start the canvassing last night since they would devote their time for more debates on the proposed rules and later for amendments and finally for the rules’ approval through individual voting.

During the voting process, each of the more than 200 House members and 23 senators would be entitled to explain his or her vote, and that alone could take hours, he added.

The process of introducing amendments could also take hours. During the debates, opposition senators and congressmen made known their intention to change the rule that seeks the creation of a Senate-House canvassing committee that would do the count.

While the committee is doing its job, the joint session of Congress would be suspended and would be convened only when the joint panel has finished its task and is ready with its report.

The opposition wants that Congress itself, in joint session, do its constitutional duty of canvassing the votes for president and vice president, although it can create a panel to do the tabulation.

If the minority fails to convince Mrs. Arroyo’s allies to agree to its proposal, it would move for the expansion of the proposed 14-member canvassing committee.

On Wednesday night, in the course of answering queries raised by Sorsogon Rep. Francis Escudero, Western Samar Rep. Eduardo Nachura, sponsor of the proposed canvassing rules for the House, said he did not know the basis for the committee’s planned membership.

Nachura said he had no objection to expanding it.

The opposition also wants that the power to include or exclude questioned certificates of canvass (COCs) should not be delegated to the joint committee, if one is formed, and should be retained by the two chambers meeting in joint session.

It intends to question COCs from several provinces where it claims its standard-bearer, movie actor Fernando Poe Jr., was cheated. Even if it were outvoted in the end, it would have exposed the alleged cheating.

In a related development, outgoing opposition Sen. Teresa Aquino-Oreta urged Drilon and Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. not to preside over the canvass.

She said the two leaders have showed themselves to be partial to Mrs. Arroyo.

Drilon is chairman of the pro-administration Liberal Party which supported the K-4 coalition of the President, while De Venecia is president of the ruling Lakas-CMD.

Reacting to similar criticism raised in the past, Drilon has said he would do his constitutional duty as a canvasser and not as an ally of the President.