THE Commission on Elections (Comelec), sitting as the National Plebiscite Board of Canvassers, on Friday, January 25, declared that the "Yes" votes have won, which means that the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) ratified the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL).
The "Yes" votes reached 1,540,017 as against the 198,750 "No" votes.
“The Comelec, sitting en banc, proclaims Republic Act 11054, or the Organic Law for BARRMM, is deemed ratified, as majority of the votes cast of present ARMM is in favor of approval of the organic law,” said the national board of canvassers' proclamation on Friday night, four days after the plebiscite was held.
Ironically, ARMM’s ratification of the BOL now means that the former will be replaced by the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
Last Wednesday, President Rodrigo Duterte already expressed elation over the apparent ratification of the BOL based on the partial and unofficial results of the plebiscite.
With the forthcoming creation of BARMM, Cotabato City has decided to join the new region.
This, after the city contributed 36,682 "Yes" votes compared to the 24,994 "No" votes.
Under the ARMM, Cotabato City is the acknowledged regional center although it is administratively part of Soccsksargen.
Isabela City, on the other hand, continued to exclude itself from the region despite Basilan, the province under which it belongs, being part of the new region.
This after Isabela City turned in 22,441 "No" votes and only 19,032 "Yes" votes on the question on whether the residents will join BARMM.
Basilan province had 144,640 "Yes" votes and 8,487 "No" votes on the question on whether it will allow Isabela City to join BARMM.
“We follow the 'double majority rule' here. It means that the voters in Isabela City should agree to be included in the BARMM, while the residents in Basilan should consent to the inclusion of Isabela City," explained Comelec spokesman James Jimenez in an interview.
Cotabato City ‘discrepancies’
The National Plebiscite Board of Canvassers (NPBOC), also on Friday, chose to proceed with the canvassing of the votes from Cotabato City.
This was despite the discrepancies raised on Thursday by no less than two members of the board, namely Commissioners Luie Guia and Rowena Guanzon.
The decision came after the NPBOC received a clarification from its Audit Group that there were actually no discrepancies in the total "Yes" and "No" votes.
“On the discrepancy on the number of votes cast for YES or NO, based on the report of the audit and tabulation group, there has been no discrepancy,” said Abas.
Based on the explanation of the NPBOC Secretariat, there are two pages of the Summary Statement of Votes (SSOV) with Page 1 having 31,031 "Yes" votes and 22,507 "No" votes; while Page 2 has 5,651 "Yes" votes and 2,487 "No" votes.
When totaled, the 36,682 "Yes" votes and 24,994 "No" votes written in the Certificate of Canvass (COC) would have been matched.
“There was just no grand total made by the City Board of Canvassers of Cotabato City. So there are no discrepancies as far as the votes are concerned,“ noted NPBOC secretary Consuelo Diola.
As to the issue of the number of registered voters and the number of registered voters who actually voted, Abas said the board has decided to still push through with the canvassing of the Cotabato City COC.
He said this is because they have ruled to just consider the discrepancy as a “formal defect” in the document.
“Upon consultation and deliberation by the Commission en banc and upon recommendation of the legal group, the discrepancy or the incompleteness of the number of registered voters and the number of registered voters who actually voted in the COC of Cotabato City, is hereby ordered as a formal defect,” said Abas.
As explained by Diola, the NPBOC audit group indeed found discrepancies in some of the entries of the SOV.
“Based on those that they have actually audited, they saw that there were certain SOVs that do not have any entry for the number of registered voters who actually voted for specific clustered precincts. They were left blank, (thus) making the data incomplete,” said Diola.
With the ratification of the BOL, the February 6 plebiscite is now likely a go.
The plebiscite will include the province of Lanao del Norte, except Iligan City; the municipalities of Aleosan, Carmen, Kabacan, Midsayap, Pikit, and Pigkawayan in the province of North Cotabato; and the 28 barangays that sought for voluntary inclusion.
In a previous interview, Jimenez said that a win by the "No" votes in the January 21 plebiscite may render the February 6 referendum moot and academic.
“If the ‘No’ vote wins on January 21, the weight of legal opinion is that the Bangsamoro region might not be even created at all. So if it's not created at all, it stands to reason that there might be no need to ask if they (contiguous areas) should be included (in the Bangsamoro),” said Jimenez. (HDT/SunStar Philippines)