First of two parts
THE displaced director of the Law Department of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has accused the chairman of the poll body — Sixto Brillantes Jr. — of unethical behavior for allegedly requesting
him to help absolve two Comelec officials ordered suspended by the Office of the Ombudsman for approving the P690-million contract to purchase ballot secrecy folders for the 2010 elections.
Lawyer Ferdinand Rafanan, who served as head of the Comelec Law Department for three years until he was sacked on August 15, said that Brillantes had asked him pointblank to talk to the Ombudsman’s spokesman on how to clear Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) members Maria Lea Alarkon and Allen Abaya of charges of “simple neglect of duty, simple misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.”
The irony was that Rafanan himself had investigated the transaction and concluded an overprice.
Aside from Alarkon and Abayan, BAC member Antonio Santella was also ordered suspended for approving the contract, which was exposed before it could be consummated. BAC members Maria Norina Casingal, Martin Niedo and Comelec Executive Director Jose Tolentino were cleared of charges.
The Ombudsman released its decision on the contract on August 23. The next day, Rafanan said, Brillantes asked him if he was related to lawyer Asryman Rafanan, the spokesman for new Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales.
According to the former Law Department head, he replied that he does not know the new Ombudsman spokesman and they have not met.
Rafanan said Brillantes then instructed him: “Puntahan mo nga. Gusto ko tulungan natin itong mga kasama natin na may kaso (See him. I’d like to help our two colleagues who have a case). I want to help those two, Alarkon and Abaya.”
Brillantes, he related, further said, “You were the one who prepared the investigation report. You know the nitty-gritty of this case. You know how to absolve them.”
Rafanan said that he wondered why Brillantes excluded Santella but did not ask because he was shocked to hear the request.
He added that what Brillantes asked him to do was a violation of Republic Act 3019, the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, which declares unlawful the act of “persuading, inducing or influencing another public officer to perform an act constituting a violation of rules and regulations duly promulgated by competent authority or an offense in connection with the official duties of the latter, or allowing himself to be persuaded, induced or influenced to commit such violation or offense.”
Brillantes admitted that he talked to Rafanan about helping the Comelec officials ordered suspended by the Ombudsman but not to absolve them.
He said that he just wanted clarification on whether the six-month preventive suspension of the three officials in 2010 could be applied to the decision. Brillantes added that when Rafanan said he did not know the new Ombudsman spokesman, he wrote the Ombudsman for clarification.
Brillantes said he has not gotten a reply as of Wednesday but that he has implemented the penalty even if he thinks it is too heavy, “considering that it was just simple neglect of duty.”
“There was no dishonesty,” he added.
Brillantes said that he did not think that his request for Rafanan to talk to the new Ombudsman spokesman was unethical because even Rafanan himself had told himthat the three were not the major players in the case.
Commissioner Augusto Lagman, who was in the room together with seven other Comelec officials when Brillantes talked to Rafanan, said he did not think much of the request, as it was “just mentioned in passing.”
On August 26, Comelec commissioners met en banc and decided to reassign Rafanan to the Planning Department. Esmeralda Amora-Ladra, head of Planning, replaced Rafanan at the Law Department.
The commissioners also decided to preterminate Rafanan’s assignment to the Joint Committee of the Comelec and the Department of Justice to investigate the 2004 and 2007 election fraud.
During a media interview, Brillantes branded Rafanan as “uncontrollable,” and expressed surprise and exasperation that he would be making such comments.
He said that Rafanan accepted the changes in the election body after it was explained to him that he had to be removed from the Law Department to allow the atmosphere to cool down because of his differences with his deputy, Josellyn Demesa, and Commissioner Elias Yusoph.
Demesa was the subject of an anonymous complaint that accused her of violating the Omnibus Election Code provision banning any person from acting as chairman or member of board of canvassers if he or she is related within the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity to any of the candidates whose votes will be canvassed.
The investigation showed that in the 2010 elections, she served as chairman of the Provincial Board of Canvassers (PBOC) of Lanao del Sur despite the fact that her daughter, Iris Mae Demesa Montes, was a nominee of the Alliance of Volunteers Educators (AVE), a party-list organization that participated in the elections.
To be continued
VERA Files is put out by veteran journalists taking a deeper look into current issues. Vera is Latin for “true.”
