CA panel finally recommends Comelec chief for confirmation

After four lengthy hearings, a Commission on Appointments committee finally recommended for confirmation the nomination of Sixto Brillantes Jr. as chairman of the Commission on Elections (Comelec). The CA committee on Constitutional commissions and offices made the recommendation after former Comelec law department head Ferdinand Rafanan opposed Brillantes' appointment. Only Senate Minority Floor Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, who has remained critical of Brillantes’ confirmation, voted against the recommendation. Rafanan’s opposition stems from the Comelec chief’s alleged request for him to convince the Ombudsman to “absolve" Bids and Awards Committee chief Maria Lea Alarkon and lawyer Allen Francis Abaya, whom the Ombudsman suspended in connection with the ballot secrecy folder anomaly, according to Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano. Also, Rafanan accused Brillantes of allegedly pressuring him to compromise himself on several cases and illegally removing him from his position as Comelec law department head. "The corrupt cannot lead the corrupt. The blind cannot lead the blind," the Comelec director said during the CA hearing on Wednesday. Several CA members, however, found it difficult to believe Rafanan's accusations. "You're lying," said Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, who presided Wednesday's hearing, even repeatedly asked Rafanan to quickly state his grounds for opposition. "Can you just wrap up all your gripes?" Estrada told Rafanan. On the other hand, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile asked whether Rafanan coursed his complaints through proper authorities. "He's been in office for a very long time. (You) lecture us how bad he is when you did not do anything," Enrile said. "In the first hearing you were supportive of the chairman. (When) you were taken out by the chair, you came out singing like a canary," added Nueva Ecija Rep. Rodolfo Antonino. Rafanan, for his part, said he could not immediately act on his grievances because he was still weighing out his options. "I do not decide on serious matters rashly," he said. Antonino added her said that he does not like how Rafanan was trying to question the judgment of all Comelec commissioners. "It was not the chairman's decision only... that is not true. We have the document it was the en banc that removed you," he said. Brillantes also explained that the commissioners were unmoved by Rafanan. "Kinausap niya lahat (ng commissioners), wala siya nakuha kahit isa (boto)," he said. He added that he hasn't even filled up the position left by Rafanan in the Comelec-Department of Justice joint panel tasked to probe the alleged irregularities in the 2004 and 2007 polls. Cayetano, meanwhile, suggested that Rafanan should bring his complaints to another venue. "I don't want your allegations to begin and end here. I don't want to burden my colleagues," he said. "I will probably continue the fight," Rafanan said in reply. Cayetano grilled Brillantes on several issues, including the Comelec’s supposed inaction over the "Hello Garci" wiretapped conversations (about rigging of election results) between a woman presumed to be former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and a man presumed to be former Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. 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 polls. — LBG, GMA News