After the Protestant had deposited a sufficient amount to cover the cost of collection for his pilot precincts, the Tribunal issued Resolution No. 16-50 dated 25 May 2017 directing the Canvass Board Service to commence not later than 19 June 2017 the retrieval of ballot boxes, election documents and other paraphernalia from the designated pilot precincts of Protestant Tolentino in the provinces of Basilan, Bulacan, Cebu, Iloilo, Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, North Cotabato, Pampanga, Quezon, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Western Samar and Zamboanga del Norte. As of 25 August 2017, a total of six hundred eighty one (681) ballot boxes out of the seven hundred fifty one (751) identified as pilot precincts by the Protestant were collected.

Having been granted clearance by the Presidential Electoral Tribunal in its Resolution dated 11 July 2017 to open the ballot boxes to facilitate the identification of the contested ballot boxes, the eleven (11) ballot boxes from San Antonio, Quezon and four (4) ballot boxes from Sta. Maria, Bulacan previously uncollected for lack of means to identify their precinct numbers there being no external markings or labels, were successfully retrieved on October 24-25, 2017.

Subsequently, on 07 February 2018, one (1) contested ballot boxes of Gutalac, Zamboanga del Norte and on 20 February 2018, the fifteen (15) ballot boxes of Al-Barka, Basilan were retrieved from the COMELEC Main Office. To date only the thirty-nine (39) ballot boxes from the Province of Lanao del Sur remains uncollected.