LIVE: Canvassing of votes for president and vice president

Tune in to Rappler for live coverage of the canvassing of votes for President and Vice President in the 2016 Philippine Elections.

MANILA, Philippines – The Senate and the House of Representatives sit in joint session starting Tuesday, May 24, to conduct the official count of votes for president and vice president in the 2016 elections, and will continue throughout the week.

According to Article VII, Section 4, of the 1987 Constitution, Congress, as the National Board of Canvassers, Congress has the sole authority to canvass the votes for the two highest executive positions, as reflected in the certificates of canvass (COC) transmitted to Congress by the Board of Canvassers (BOC) of each province or city, as well as COCs for local and overseas absentee votes – a total of 164 COCs.

NBOC’s discretion is limited to the determination of the “authenticity and due execution in the manner provided by law” of the COCs transmitted to it for canvassing. It has no power to go beyond the COC as appearing before them, except for 3 grounds detailed in Section 37 of Republic Act Number 9369:

• Discrepancy
• Incompleteness
• Erasure or alteration

Outside of these grounds, the canvass of votes is ministerial. (READ the full canvassing explainer on Rappler #PHvote.)

On Tuesday, the two chambers choose their representatives to the NBOC, to exclude those who ran for president and vice president. The board then drafts and approves the rules for canvassing. Starting Wednesday, May 25, they will start canvassing the votes.

Catch the live stream and live blog on Rappler. – Rappler.com