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PRESIDENT Gloria Arroyo will not appoint a new
chairman at the Commission on Elections (Comelec), because Benjamin
Abalos is considered on terminal leave for four months despite
resigning from his post Monday, the Palace’s lawyer said.
As this developed, Abalos said he
continues to support the Arroyo administration, while Mayor Benjamin
“Benhur” Abalos Jr. of Mandaluyong City appealed to the
media and public to go easy in judging his father.
Chief Presidential Legal Counsel
Sergio Apostol said Malacañang will just let Abalos’s leave
credits be consumed so as to complete his seven-year tenure as head
of the Comelec. In the meantime, senior Comelec Commissioner
Resurrección Borra will be officer in charge.
“Legally speaking, the Comelec
chairmanship is not vacant because even [if] Chairman Abalos left
office, he still has to consume his leave credits … the President
believes that the OIC can handle the job well,” Apostol said.
Mrs. Arroyo’s move not to appoint
a new Comelec chairman may be a wise move, according to retired
Comelec chief and Supreme Court Justice Bernardo Pardo.
In an interview with The Manila
Times, Pardo said that if Malacañang appoints a successor to Abalos,
he will serve only the unfinished term of the resigned chairman,
which is four months.
“I think it is better not to
appoint,” he said citing the 1987 Constitution. “It is better to
wait for the next four months until the term of Abalos expires.”
That section of the constitution
states that “the Chairman and the Commissioners shall be appointed
by the President with the consent of the Commission on Appointments
for a term of seven years without reappointment … appointment to
any vacancy shall be only for the un-expired term of the
predecessor.”
Pardo said it is necessary that
the next Comelec chairman be given more time for reforms to be
implemented inside the poll body.
Possible candidates
Some members of the judiciary
also told The Times on condition of anonymity that it is better to
appoint a former magistrate or a nonpolitician to Comelec.
Two personalities fit this mold,
they said. Those personalities are former Justice Secretary Artemio
Tuquero and former Comelec commissioner Romeo Brawner. Both are also
retired justices of the Court of Appeals.
An appellate court justice said
Tuquero is fit for the position since he started his career at the
Comelec as an election officer after passing the bar. Tuquero is a
member of the Iglesia ni Cristo, a powerful and influential
religious group.
Brawner, on the other hand, is a
former presiding justice of the appellate court and the brother of
former Air Force general Felix Brawner.
This early, however, Abalos is
reportedly recommending Supreme Court Associate Justice Dante Tinga
to be the next chairman. Tinga’s tenure with the High Court ends
in May 2009. The source said Abalos has been endorsing Tinga as his
replacement even before he resigned.
Still supportive of GMA
Meanwhile, Abalos said Tuesday
that he remains supportive of Mrs. Arroyo’s administration despite
of his resignation.
“My respect and admiration for
President Arroyo has not diminished,” Abalos, told The Times in a
telephone interview. “I know she’s doing her best for the
country.”
Abalos made the assurance amid
prodding by the opposition for him to turn “state witness” in
the controversial $330-million national broadband network deal,
which is the subject of a Senate probe.
However, Abalos said he cannot
turn state witness because he knows nothing about the broadband
deal.
Abalos was accused of brokering
the deal and of offering bribes to a Cabinet member and a son of the
House Speaker. The chairman denied those charges.
Benhur’s appeal
As Abalos continues to grapple
with accusations against him, his son, Benhur, appealed to the
public to go slow in judging his father.
“All that I could say is for
the public to be objective, evaluate the documented evidence and
judge for themselves the issue at hand,” Mayor Abalos said.
Asked if Speaker Jose de Venecia
should also resign, Mayor Abalos said, “It would be better for me
to keep to myself my opinion as to whether de Venecia should step
down as Speaker.”
De Venecia’s son, Jose
“Joey” de Venecia 3rd, is the principal accuser of Abalos.
Earlier, Mayor Abalos had accused the Speaker of having a hand in
the impeachment move against Chairman Abalos.
--Jomar Canlas, Angelo S.
Samonte, Francis Earl A. Cueto
and William B. Depasupil
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