Comelec exec opposes poll chief's confirmation

(Updated 12:39 p.m.) A Commission on Elections official has formally opposed the confirmation of the appointment of Elections chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. before the Commission on Appointments, Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano said Wednesday. "I was informed by my staff that Director [Ferdinand] Rafanan filed an opposition (against you. He has) grave allegations in his affidavit... he formalized it today," Cayetano said during the CA committee on constitutional commissions and offices' hearing on the appointment of Brillantes. Later in the hearing, the CA panel's chairman Senate President Pro Tempore Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada said they have received Rafanan's affidavit, which he said was executed on Wednesday morning. But Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who chairs the CA, opposed hearing Rafanan's complaint. "This case has been published since April. If he is going to hold us up today by filing an affidavit and he is not here, that means that this is a subterfuge, a machination to impede the work of this commission. Personally I'm voicing my opposition, I'm not in favor of it," he said at the hearing. Estrada, for his part, said that they will let the members decide whether to hear Rafanan's opposition. Investigate Brillantes On Tuesday, Rafanan, formerly the Comelec law department head, asked the Office of the Ombudsman and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) to investigate Brillantes for allegedly violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. Rafanan said Brillantes asked him to convince the Ombudsman to "absolve" Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) chief Maria Lea Alarkon and lawyer Allen Francis Abaya, who were suspended by the Ombudsman in connection with the ballot secrecy folder anomaly. Brillantes denied the allegation. On Wednesday, Brillantes explained he only felt that the one-year suspension was too heavy when the two were only found guilty of simple neglect and have even served a six-month suspension already. Cayetano said he would like it if the two would face each other in front of the CA. Earlier in the hearing, the senator also questioned the poll body's decision to remove Rafanan from the joint panel for criticizing the Comelec. "In the context of tuwid na daan, we need noisy people. Removing him is obviosuly sidelining him," he said. Rafanan has been transfered to the planning department. The CA hearing was still ongoing as of posting time. The confirmation of Brillantes has already been deferred twice. — RSJ, GMA News