Rep. Gomez questions House vote counting in the approval of the divorce bill

May 24, 2024 , 04:51 PM

By Lace Anne Ebuña

(May 24, 2024) – Leyte Rep. Richard Gomez expressed confusion over the discrepancy in the number of lawmakers voting ‘yes’ to House Bill No. 9349, also known as the proposed Absolute Divorce Act, questioning the sudden increase in affirmative votes from 126 to 131.

“They have already recorded the initial number of affirmative votes, and this has been reported and announced in the plenary. But now they are saying that there was an error in the counting. How did that happen?” Gomez said.

Initially reported at 126 affirmative votes, the count was later revised to 131, prompting questions regarding the accuracy of the voting procedure.

The lawmaker then questioned whether the adjustment made to address statements that the motion to approve HBN 9349 was “lost” when the body failed to get the majority votes of the members who were present during last Tuesday’s session.

He expressed that in his personal assessment, he believes that the approval of the divorce bill was lost when it failed to get the majority approval of the lawmakers present when it was put to a vote and that HBN 9349 has not been approved on third and final reading.

Moreover, Rep. Gomez asked for clarification on whether correcting the number of votes outside of the session is allowed under House rules. He asserts that if making errors in vote counting is a ‘regular’ occurrence, it raises concerns about the accuracy of previous votes counted in relation to other measures.

(PB)

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