Manila (AsiaNews) - It has been three weeks since the Philippine National Elections were finished last May 10, but lawmakers are still discussing over the technicalities on the counting of ballots for the presidential and vice-presidential candidates. After four days and nights of tedious debates between senators and congressmen, a 22-man committee was finally proposed which will which will officially look over the counting of the votes for the two high seats of government. The Congressional Joint Committee, composed of 11 members from the Senate and 11 from Congress,headed by Senate President Franklin Drilon and Speaker Jose de Venecia of Congress, should have begin the ballot canvassing today. However, the opposition, senators and congressmen supporting presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr., have questioned several procedures, causing another delay in the vote counting.Meanwhile the 3,200 ballot boxes, containing the documents of the election results nation-wide, were transported last Saturday to the Congress building for the official counting.Earlier, the Commission on Elections said that it would announce the winner of the two high government positions by the first week of June. At the rate the debate is going among the lawmakers, this announcement is sure to be delayed, much to the frustration and confusing among Filipinos who are waiting anxiously for the election results.
Meanwhile, the terms of both the president and vice president end June 30. If the tallying of votes is not concluded by this date, these two seats will remain empty, leaving the country without a leader.In a paid full-page advertisement today, presidential opposition candidate Fernando Poe Jr. aired hiscommitment to the Filipino people, "We should unite behind our duly elected leaders who will steer us in the difficult and trying times ahead." However, he pointed out the reports of fraud during elections and the supposedly misuse of government resources during the campaign period. He also questioned the composition of the Congressional Joint Committee, which, he says "does not provide for equal representation between and among all the candidates and parties."Likewise, Cardinal Ricardo Vidal, Cardinal Jaime Sin, Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales, Bishop Socrates Villegas and several church-based organizations issued a one-page advertisement calling for unity and sobriety among the Filipinos. "The elections were far from perfect. There was vote-buying, intimidation and coercion, cheating and the vote count leaves much to be desired," they said. "Yet in the end, we believe the majority of our people agree that in the absence of evidence of widespread fraud, in its totality the elections at the national level reflect the will of the people."
