PNoy to reappoint Comelec chief Brillantes — Palace

President Benigno Aquino III will reappoint Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Sixto Brillantes who failed to get the nod of the Commission on Appointments before the Congress adjourned its session last week. In a text message Monday, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said Executive Secretary Pacquito Ochoa Jr. confirmed that Brillantes will be reappointed. The CA deferred to August 9 the hearing on Brillantes’s appointment after the panel ran out of time even though Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano still had questions for the Comelec chief. [See: CA bypasses Brillantes’ appointment as Comelec chief] Brillantes served as counsel to retired Associate Justice Dante Tinga, who filed an electoral protest against Cayetano's wife for supposedly cheating in the May 2010 elections. Tinga and Cayetano’s wife were rivals in the Taguig City mayoralty race. Cayetano had earlier said he will stop opposing Brillantes' appointment if he provides "answers that will satisfy us that he will be a good chairman." At a press briefing in Malacañang on Monday, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda also raised the concern regarding regional Comelec director Ray Sumalipao in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, considering the later’s connections with former Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. Garcillano was accused of rigging the results of the 2004 elections to favor then presidential candidate Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Sumalipao had denied his supposed ties with Garcillano as well as the alleged election anomalies in 2007. “So we would hope that the Comelec would do all it can to erase any doubt as to the presence of Mr. Sumalipao in ARMM. As you know, we have postponed the elections in ARMM and as we have already stated, we are pressing for reforms and we would hope that the Comelec would also do its part in electoral reforms in the ARMM elections," Lacierda said. — VS, GMA News