Cebu City COC excluded

The joint Senate-House canvassing committee decided yesterday to defer the inclusion in the tally of the certificate of canvass (COC) from Cebu City where, based on unofficial tabulations, President Arroyo won over opposition standard bearer Fernando Poe Jr. by more than 160,000 votes.

The decision was prompted by the objection raised by Sen. John Osmeña to the tabulation of the votes from Cebu City where he claimed there was massive cheating "particularly in the south district represented by Rep. Antonio Cuenco."

Osmeña shared the observation made minutes earlier by Senate colleague Sergio "Serge" Osmeña III that the number of votes cast for president in most precincts in the city exceeded the number of voters who actually voted last May 10.

John Osmeña said the Cebu votes should not be tallied since they would not affect Mrs. Arroyo’s large margin anyway.

He was sitting as part of the six-member majority panel in the Senate contingent in the joint committee, while Serge Osmeña was among the five minority members of the contingent.

Seeing the implication of John Osmeña’s objection to tallying the Cebu City votes, Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan, who was presiding over the canvass jointly with House Deputy Speaker Raul Gonzalez, immediately declared a break in the proceedings.

Had a vote been immediately taken, John Osmeña would have voted with the minority and the votes from Cebu City would have been set aside and disregarded.

During the break, Senate President Franklin Drilon and Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. tried to convince the Cebu senator to withdraw his objection but Osmeña was adamant.

Drilon and De Venecia found a compromise: defer the Senate contingent’s vote on the canvassing of the Cebu City COC, a move that effectively shelved the tabulation of Cebu City votes even if the House panel had voted to canvass the certificate just minutes earlier.

It was not known how long the deferment would last.

Drilon and De Venecia were hoping that John Osmeña would disappear from the canvass hall. That would tilt the Senate contingent’s vote in favor of canvassing the Cebu City COC.

Cuenco tried to intervene to protest Osmeña’s remarks about the voting in his district, but Gonzalez did not want fuel added to the fire and gagged Cuenco by ruling him out of order.

Actually, there were political understones in the quarrel between Osmeña and Cuenco, who defeated a protégé of the latter in the May elections.

For his part, Sorsogon Rep. Francis Escudero, who substituted for Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., said the Cebu City COC was the "cleanest I have ever seen."

"Malinis ang dayaang nangyayari," he said sarcastically.

Opposition Sen. Edgardo Angara, aware that the minority could have won its first small victory since the canvassing began had a vote been taken on the Cebu City COC, protested Pangilinan’s quick move to declare a break in the session to preempt the vote.

Angara said the majority was fast to suspend the proceedings whenever it senses trouble for itself and imminent victory for the opposition.

The setting aside of the Cebu City COC would have cast doubt on the certificate of canvass from the province that has already been tallied on Friday night, when lawyers of Poe walked out of the canvass.

In Cebu province, Mrs. Arroyo took her single biggest provincial margin of more than 800,000 votes over Poe.

Yesterday’s canvassing was proceeding at a faster pace largely because of the absence of the lawyers of Poe and evangelist Eddie Villanueva.