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Pimentel wants Comelec powers amended


A former lawmaker and staunch critic of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday said the powers of the poll body should be amended so that it would be more transparent in its investigations and also to avoid "cover-ups." "If a Comelec personnel violates any provision of the law he cannot be investigated by other departments. The Comelec will still be the one to investigate," former Senator Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel Jr. said Thursday. With this setup, he said the "tendency" is that the Comelec would "cover up" for their own people. He also said that lower ranking employees would end up being afraid of revealing any information that would put them in trouble with their superiors. "In that case whoever takes over the Comelec must show the people that they are not about to cover up any misdeeds by their own people," he said during a weekly forum at the Senate on Thursday. The former senator issued the statement after the Comelec created a fact-finding body to investigate the reasons behind the delays in the elections in more than 2,400 villages in the country scheduled last Monday. Comelec spokesman James Jimenez, for his part, said that there was no specific provision that would bar other agencies from investigating the poll body. The Ombudsman had earlier conducted its own investigation into the botched ballot folder controversy. However, he reminded Pimentel that the Comelec is still an independent Constitutional body. "As such, it is important that it not be subjected to politically charged investigations," he told GMANews.TV in a text message on Thursday. Jimenez added that under the 1987 Philippine Constitution, the Comelec commissioners are impeachable officers and can only be removed by impeachment. During the May automated polls, Pimentel blasted the Comelec for claiming that election paraphernalia - which included election returns and compact flash cards - retrieved from a junkshop in his hometown Cagayan de Oro were stolen. The Comelec later on created a three-man panel to probe the matter. - Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK, GMANews.TV

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