Lawyer Martin Delgra III, legal counsel of former President Rodrigo Duterte and representing PDP Laban senatorial candidates, expressed on Friday a manifestation on the issue of overvoting before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC).
An overvote occurs when an individual indicates on his/her ballot a vote for more candidates than the number of candidates for which an individual is permitted to vote for a particular office.
“I made this manifestation as a matter of personal and collective privilege. I have already noticed a little bit of discrepancy and I wish to be clarified by the commission on what we observed as early as two days ago. Today, some people or somebody have already taken the effort and I supposed that it has already reached the attention of the commission about the figures that came out in the social media,” Delgra said in a forum initiated by the Comelec.
Delgra cited the example of the Certificate of Canvass (COC) of San Juan City of the second district of the National Capital Region (NCR).
He emphasized that looking at the preliminary data there are two basic data that they would like to look into to refer to all the votes of the senatorial candidates.
“First, the number of the registered voters and I emphasized voters. The second data mentioned is the number of ballots counted and I emphasized the word ballots because the ballot refers to the voter,” he said.
Delgra said, however, in the Comelec’s website of the 2025 Election Results, what would appear after every position from the senator down to the party list down to the mayor, vice mayor, and the councilors is a set of statistical information and it reads ” 3,004 overvotes in the case of San Juan City.
He also mentioned that there are 100,669 registered voters in San Juan City, 58,952 votes of senatorial candidates, and the ballots counted only 70,809.
“I would like to ask the National Board of Canvassers why the basis for the data in the Certificate of Canvass is not the same as in the statistical information mentioned in the Comelec website. Which creates If I may say confusion to the public as we speak now. For example, a further observation on our part. There is an overvote of 3,004 votes,” Delgra said.
“In our opinion, if there is an overvote for that particular position all the votes on that particular position are rejected. Is that a fair accurate statement? We would like to be understood that overvotes, all the votes for that position will not be counted,” he added.
The Comelec completed on Friday its official tally of the senatorial race, where incumbent Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go has emerged as the top senatorial bet with over 27 million votes.
Other PDP senatorial candidates who made it to the top 12 are Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, Rodante Marcoleta, Camille Villar, and Imee Marcos.
PDP senatoriables who did not make it are Jimmy Bondoc, Philip Salvador, Raul Lambino, Vic Rodriguez and Jayvee Hinlo.
“I supposed this is a forum for the commission to clarify not only to this representation and to the party that I represent but to the public in general. This is a call also for clarity, consistency, and transparency in so far as the midterm 2025 elections are concerned,” Delgra said.
Meanwhile, Comelec chairman George Garcia requested Delgra to put his manifestation into writing to find out if the commission is the proper body to raise the particular issue.
“Number one, the good counsel is mentioning the COC of San Juan which is previously already canvassed by the national board of canvassers. Basic is the principle if it should be objected it should be at the time that a particular COC is being canvassed,” he said.
