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By Paolo Romero 

Leaders of the House of Representatives vowed to ensure the smooth canvassing of votes for president and vice president this week, but also raised the possibility of being hampered by the tight race for the vice presidency.

The Senate and the House are set to convene jointly on Wednesday as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) to tally the votes for president and vice president. 

The two chambers will resume session today and they are expected to adopt a resolution calling for a joint session of Congress to act as NBOC. 

After the approval of the joint resolution, the Senate and the House are expected to pass tomorrow the canvassing rules and appoint members of the canvassing panel from the two chambers.

The canvassing process is scheduled to start on Wednesday with the opening of ballot boxes containing the certificates of canvass (COCs).

The Senate, for its part, has named its representatives to the NBOC.

Apart from Senate President Franklin Drilon, Senators Aquilino Pimentel III, Juan Edgardo Angara, Teofisto Guingona III, Loren Legarda, and Paolo Benigno Aquino were nominated to represent the Senate in the NBOC, which will convene on Tuesday.

Angara said some senators have met and agreed on the composition of the panel.

To ensure impartiality and objectivity, Angara said those who ran for president and vice-president were excluded: Senators Grace Poe, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Alan Peter Cayetano, Gregorio Honasan, Francis Escudero and Antonio Trillanes IV.

Sen. Nancy Binay, daughter of Vice President Jejomar Binay who lost in the presidential race, was also not included.

Pimentel, president of PDP-Laban whose standard bearer was incoming president Rodrigo Duterte, was chosen to replace Cayetano.

Angara said the Senate contingent will be led by the Senate president as counterpart of the Speaker, supported by the majority leaders of both chambers.

Since Cayetano ran with Duterte as vice presidential candidate, he would not be part of the Senate contingent as majority leader, Angara said. Pimentel is the deputy.

“There is no problem with Congressman Gonzales since he did not run for any national elective position,” Angara said,  referring to House Majority Leader Mandaluyong City Rep. Neptali Gonzales II.

Gonzales, for his part, said that while every effort will be made to speed up the canvassing, it is also anticipating some delays owing to the close fight between Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo and Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the vice-presidential race.

“We’re not really sure how intense the battle for vice president will turn out,” Gonzales told dzBB.

“The possible clash will be between those representing presumptive president Rodrigo Duterte, who naturally want it (canvassing) to be faster, and probably those in the vice- presidential race,” he said.

The latest unofficial tally from the transparency servers of the Commission on Elections showed Robredo leading Marcos by over 200,000 votes.

Last week, Robredo’s camp claimed victory, saying even if she will get zero votes from the remaining untallied voting precincts, the Liberal Party bet will win by over 20,000 votes.

Marcos’ camp, however, alleged some form of fraud that allowed Robredo to overtake his lead.

Gonzales pointed out that all of Duterte’s rivals, except Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, have conceded defeat, which should make the canvassing of votes for president go on smoothly.

He said this has a bearing on the canvassing of votes for vice president as votes of the presidential and vice-presidential candidates will be canvassed virtually simultaneously from each COC.

“For example a COC from a province, there will be only one observation (by members of the canvassing panel) on the COC after inspecting it. It can’t be that there are differing observations on the vote for president and vice president because it comes from only one COC,” he said.

Gonzales said the canvassing process would be continuous but there were no specific rules yet.

He recalled the 2010 canvassing where President Aquino was proclaimed on June 10.

The 16th Congress, which began on July 22, 2013, will adjourn sine die its third and last regular session on June 10.