CA defers Comelec chief's confirmation for the 3rd time

For the third time, the Commission on Appointments (CA) has deferred the confirmation of the appointment of Sixto Brillantes Jr. as chairman of the Commission on Elections (Comelec). The CA committee on constitutional commissions and offices deferred it on Wednesday after it ran out of time to hear the opposition filed against Brillantes by former Comelec law department head Ferdinand Rafanan. The next hearing has been set for September 21. Earlier in the day, the CA panel's chairman, Senate President Pro Tempore Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada, said they received Rafanan's affidavit on Wednesday morning. Members of the CA, however, had to argue first before deciding to accept the opposition. Alagad party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta specifically asked what good the affidavit, which he called a "belated afterthought," will do for the commission. Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who chairs the CA, also opposed accepting Rafanan's affidavit. "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," Enrile said at the hearing. Majority of the CA members still decided to accept the opposition, although they had to defer from hearing it because the House contingent had to return to the House of Representatives for their budget deliberations.

Senate Minority Floor Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, who is openly against Brillantes' confirmation, explained that Rafanan's complaint was about the Comelec chief's alleged request for Rafanan 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. Rafanan on Tuesday also asked the Office of the Ombudsman and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) to investigate the Comelec chief for allegedly violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. Brillantes has since denied the allegation. Cayetano, however, also grilled Brillantes over several other issues. He first questioned the Comelec chief over the supposed inaction of the poll body over several anomalies, including the Hello Garci controversy. The Hello Garci scandal refers to the alleged wiretapped conversations where vote-rigging in the 2004 elections was discussed by a woman presumed to be former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and a man presumed to be former Comelec Commissioner Garcillano. Brillantes said that the previous Comelec administration had already conducted an investigation but that its records were destroyed during a fire. He likewise said that the supposed Garci boys will be included in the joint investigation of the Comelec and the Department of Justice on the alleged irregularities that marred that 2004 and 2007 elections. But aside from this, Cayetano 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 obviously sidelining him," he said. Rafanan has been transferred to the planning department. - KBK, GMA News