NBOC starts sending out proclamation invites to winning Senate bets
The National Board of Canvassers has started handing out invites for proclamations to winning Senate candidates. Photo by Niño Jesus Orbeta.
MANILA, Philippines — The National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) has instructed the secretariat to start sending invites to the winning senatorial candidates after the board has finished canvassing all certificates of canvass (COCs) on Thursday.
During the NBOC’s session on Thursday evening, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairperson George Garcia was informed that the releasing committee has already a copy of the following documents:
- National tally sheet for the senatorial race
- National tally sheet for the party-list race
- National tally sheet for the party-list race by rank
- National tally sheet for the senatorial race by rank
The NBOC is tasked to count votes for the senatorial and party-list races in the 2025 midterm elections.
After being informed that the tallies have already been audited, Garcia directed the secretariat to turn the documents to the supervisory committee so that it could recommend when the winning candidates can be proclaimed. Garcia said they prefer the candidates to be proclaimed by Saturday.
“These are all audited documents by the releasing group?” Garcia asked. “Therefore you are directed to turn over these documents to the supervisory committee, for purposes of the supervisory committee recommending to the [NBOC] whether or not to proclaim the winning senatorial candidates, the 12 senatorial candidates, by Saturday, for purposes of drafting the resolution.”
“And likewise, the supervisory group is directed to recommend to the commission the allocation to be given to the party-list based on the ranks and the votes obtained, and for preparation likewise of the resolution,” he added.
After this, Garcia tasked the secretariat to start issuing letters of invitation to the 12 winning senatorial candidates.
For the party-list race, however, the date of proclamation has yet to be determined because there are still concerns regarding the seat allocation.
“We will proceed to the proclamations of the twelve winning senatorial candidates by Saturday, the secretariat is hereby directed to issue the corresponding letters of invitation to the 12 winning senatorial candidates, and likewise for the supervisory group to recommend to us the exact date when the proclamations of the leading party-list groups, organizations, and parties will be held,” he said.
“But then immediately the national board of canvassers has decided to proceed first with the proclamations of the leading candidates for senators by Saturday, in the event that is the recommendation of the supervisory group,” he added.
Earlier, Comelec released two canvass reports containing the partial and official tally, as the NBOC continues to process the COCs sent to its database.
The NBOC receives and tallies results from the COCs, or the aggregated, final, and official count of votes for the senatorial and party-list race. The COCs come from provinces, highly urbanized cities, local absentee voting, and overseas absentee voting.
As early as Tuesday though, Garcia said the NBOC could start proclaiming winning senators by Saturday, as Comelec was on pace to complete the fastest canvassing ever.
READ: Winning senators to be proclaimed Saturday at earliest — Comelec
Currently, the partial and unofficial tally as of 5:32 p.m. of Thursday shows that Senator Bong Go is still the lead, with 26.91 million votes.
Behind Go are the following candidates:
- Former Senator Bam Aquino – 20.85 million
- Senator Ronald dela Rosa – 20.59 million
- ACT-CIS Rep. Erwin Tulfo – 17.06 million
- Former Senator Kiko Pangilinan – 15.29 million
- Sagip party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta – 15.14 million
- Former Senator Ping Lacson – 15.06 million
- Former Senate President Tito Sotto – 14.75 million
- Senator Pia Cayetano – 14.51 million
- Deputy Speaker Camille Villar – 13.57 million
- Senator Lito Lapid – 13.33 milion
- Senator Imee Marcos – 13.25 million / MR
