Palace urged to let NGOs help pick new Comelec chief

A Senate opposition stalwart on Wednesday urged Malacañang to solicit the help of non-government organizations (NGO) in selecting the next head of the Commission on Elections (Comelec). Minority Floor Leader Alan Peter Cayetano said that the Palace should draw representatives from NGOs that focus on the electoral process into a search committee dedicated to creating a shortlist, from which the President can choose the next poll body chief. "I think we owe it to our people that the Palace... [has] a transparent and open system of searching for the new chairman and of the commissioners who will retire," he said during a press briefing on Wednesday. The lack of transparency and broad consultation in the selection of the Comelec’s commissioners, especially its chairman, has been repeatedly criticized because of the possibility that the President as the appointing power may compose a poll body beholden to his camp’s partisan interests. Comelec chairman Jose Melo's seven-year term was supposed to end in 2015. Last November, however, he said that he will quit his post effective Jan. 31, 2011. (See: Melo quits post as Comelec chairman effective Jan. 2011) President Benigno Aquino said he is already looking for people to replace Melo and two other commissioners, Nicodemo Ferrer and Gregorio Larrazabal, whose terms are set to end in February. While he did not give names, Aquino said he is initially searching for Melo's replacement from outside the present Comelec members. Cayetano, however, said that he is "offended" that some of the names being mentioned in reports as the possible next Comelec chairman are people he considers as "election operators." "It's not in the character of the Aquino administration that those who will be appointed as Comelec chairman and commissioners are known operators in the industry of electoral cheating," he said. Among the names being floated as possibly the next poll body chief are veteran election lawyers Sixto Brillantes and Romulo Macalintal, and Justice secretary Leila de Lima as well. "It's important that we have people whose credibility is unquestionable, who are not in the industry of elections to make money but rather life-long advocacy [for] clean and honest elections," said Cayetano. "It's not enough that you are good, you have to be perceived as doing good. It's not enough that there is no cheating, you have to be perceived as someone who will not cheat. It's not enough that you are not biased, you have to be perceived as not being biased," he added. In a text message to GMANews.TV, Sen. Francis Escudero however said that Aquino should be allowed to decide for himself whom he wants as the next Comelec chairman. "Anyone can always recommend or criticize nominees but it's up to the President. (Anyway) the appointee of the President will undergo scrutiny and confirmation by the Commission on Appointments," Escudero said.—JV, GMANews.TV