Human rights lawyer leads nominees for Comelec post

MANILA, Philippines – A lawyer known for his independence is the unanimous choice of election watchdogs as the next chair of the Commission on Elections (Comelec). Carlos Medina Jr., a human rights lawyer and election reform advocate, leads a short list of nominees that election watchdogs have submitted to Malacañang for consideration. Medina is a national convenor of Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE), a group of volunteer lawyers that has assisted the Comelec in previous elections and reform advocacies. At present, Medina is a member of the Truth Commission, a body created by President Benigno Aquino III to investigate anomalies under the previous administration but which has been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court (See: SC declares truth commission unconstitutional) Comelec chair Jose Melo is scheduled to retire by the end of January this year. Two other Comelec commissioners, Nicodemo Ferrer and Gregorio Larrazabal, are scheduled to retire on February 2. The appointments are critical since the next local elections will be held two years from now, in 2013. Too, there are lessons to be learned from the first automated national elections held last May. (See: Poll Automation Timeline: A guide to the auditors) Civil society groups have banded together to form an independent search committee that hopes to help President Aquino choose the best people for the posts through a transparent selection process. The National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections, or Namfrel, has in fact opened its site to get feedback on the process and nominations for the posts. The committee includes former Comelec chair Christian Monsod representing the Bishop-Businessmen’s Conference; Jose Cuisia Jr. of Namfrel; Vincent Lazatin of the Transparency and Accountability Network, and Rose Reyes of LENTE, among others. Medina is their unanimous choice for Melo’s position. Another nominee is lawyer Antonio Pastelero, who led the case against Comelec in the case involving the purchase of counting machines from Mega Pacific eSolutions. Not just lawyers Previous news reports have quoted Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa as saying that the Palace already has names for the replacement of Ferrer and Larrazabal but none so far for the position of Comelec chair. President Aquino himself confirms that he is considering some names and says he prefers the new Comelec boss to be young and dynamic. According to sources in the search committee, they have already sent their recommendations to President Aquino for him to consider “non-lawyers" as replacements for Ferrer and Larrazabal, given Comelec’s need for experts and good administrators. They say that the criteria should include management skills and knowledge of information technology, rather than expertise in the law. Among the group’s nominees for the two commissioner-positions are business and IT professionals Ma. Caridad Manarang and Baltazar Endriga, and Dean Edna Estifania Co of the University of the Philippines National College of Public Administration and Governance (UP-NCPAG). Manarang has experience in designing an automated election system for the Comelec, which was supposed to have been more transparent and less expensive than Smartmatic’s, the chosen automation machine provider. Endriga, IT expert and certified public accountant, is also the group’s top nominee in terms of managerial skills. Manarang and Endriga both worked with the auditing firm SGV & Co., and Namfrel. Co, on the other hand, was nominated for her multi-disciplinary approach to electoral reform. She has worked with various organizations here and abroad, including the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, Asia Foundation, and is currently a consultant to Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista. More names Three other names have been floated in the media as possible replacements for Melo: retired Supreme Court (SC) Associate Justice Leonardo Quisumbing, retiring SC Associate Justice Eduardo Nachura, and veteran election lawyer Sixto Brillantes. “I hope they will not get from [those already retired or retiring], that’s the hope of Namfrel," said Damaso Magbual, membership committee chair of Namfrel and current chair of the Asian Network for Free Elections. “Let’s get fresh blood." Magbual said appointing an election lawyer to the Comelec could damage the credibility of the poll body. Brillantes said he was not seeking the position but that he would accept if offered to him. Another poll watchdog, the Consortium on Electoral Reforms (CER), is expected to submit its nominations this week. CER chair Ramon Casiple notes that Medina is also one of their nominees for the top post, along with Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento. He also confirms that their nominees for the positions of Ferrer and Larrazabal include Liberal Party director-general Jose Luis Martin Gascon and election lawyer Luie Tito Guia. Casiple said they are also eyeing a woman nominee. He said a woman could provide a different perspective in the Comelec. Higher expectations Poll watchdogs see the search for the next top three Comelec officials as a great opportunity for electoral reform. “I think it is very, very important, because in the first supposedly automated elections, the Comelec did not function at all as an election commission. It was Smartmatic (the automation machine provider) which was running the election," Magbual said. Political analyst Prospero De Vera, who helped in the campaign of defeated presidential candidate Manuel Villar, said the basic problem during that time was the lack of familiarity with the technology. The result, he said, was that “they [Comelec] basically just gave the powers to Smartmatic to run the elections for us!" Learning from that experience, De Vera said knowledge in election technology must be an additional requirement in choosing the new commissioners. As Magbual put it, the first automated election was the least transparent of all the elections he has observed as a member of Namfrel. “I think the choice of technology is a failure, and you can never err on the side of transparency." Magbual said the Comelec has to be more transparent, “They should also trust Filipino IT practitioners to review the source code, CF cards… they have to get a different technology—cheaper and transparent."—Newsbreak