Truth Comm member also among those eyed for top Comelec post

Truth Commission member and law professor Carlos Medina Jr. is also among those being considered for Commission on Elections (Comelec) chair, President Benigno Aquino III said Thursday. In an interview with reporters, Aquino confirmed that he is considering Medina, along with veteran election lawyers Sixto Brillantes and Romulo Macalintal, for the post that will be vacated by outgoing chair Jose Melo on January 31. Aquino has already interviewed Brillantes and Macalintal in Malacanang last Monday, but no schedule has been set yet for Medina's interview, Medina told GMANews.TV in a text message. Medina is a human rights lawyer and election reform advocate. He 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. Aquino said he is considering several other personalities for the post, but did not name them. The president, however, quashed rumors that he is also considering retired Supreme Court (SC) Associate Justice Leonardo Quisumbing and retiring SC Associate Justice Eduardo Nachura for the position. "I don't know where that came from," Aquino said. "I don't have a proposal either for Justice Nachura or Quisumbing." Aquino said he has talked to Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) chair Henrietta de Villa and other civil society leaders who are pushing for the appointment of certain personalities as Melo's replacement. "I want to hear from all sectors as much as possible," he said. Serge's claim Senator Sergio "Serge" Osmeña III, one of Aquino's political allies, earlier speculated that Aquino's Liberal Party is backing the appointment of Macalintal, former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's lawyer. Macalintal also served as Aquino's election lawyer when the latter first ran for Congress as Tarlac representative. Osmeña said the LP is backing Macalintal because they do not want Brillanes, Aquino's lawyer in the last May elections, to take over the Comelec because he is perceived to have supported the candidacy for vice president of Jejomar Binay instead of LP president Mar Roxas, Aquino's runningmate. Roxas is contesting Binay's win before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.

Earlier in the day, both Macalintal and Brillantes denied that they were involved with the supposed factions among Aquino's supporters. Malacañang likewise brushed aside the speculation. "To the best of our knowledge nobody's pushing the nomination of attorneys Macalintal and Brillantes," said presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda at a press briefing. "They were asked to meet with the president because the president obviously wanted an election expert in the Comelec. There's no factions here, nobody's pushing for anyone," Lacierda said. The Palace official said Osmeña apparently made the statement based on the senator's own analysis, and not on a conversation with the president. Senator Francis Escudero, one of those who supported the Aquino-Binay tandem in the last elections, refused to comment on Osmeña's speculation, saying only that "at the end of the day, it's the president who will decide." Melo's seven-year term was supposed to end in 2015, but he tendered his resignation, effective Jan. 31, 2011, last November because he wanted to "move on" after successfully leading the country's first nationwide automated elections. Aside from Melo, Aquino has to find a replacement for two Comelec commissioners whose terms are set to expire in February: Nicodemo Ferrer and Gregorio Larrazabal. — with Sophia Dedace and Kim Tan/RSJ, GMANews.TV