As Palace defends appointment of ex-Marcos lawyer to poll body
President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed former National Commission on Muslim Filipinos head Saidamen Balt Pangarungan as ad interim chairman of the Commission on Elections.
He also named two other officials – George Garcia and Aimee Neri – as ad interim Comelec commissioners.
“The directive of the President is to ensure an honest, peaceful, credible and free elections,” newly-appointed acting presidential spokesman Martin Andanar said in a Palace briefing Tuesday.
Pangarungan, an ex-governor of Lanao del Sur, finished his law degree in 1976 at the San Beda College.
Garcia is a veteran election lawyer who previously represented Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos in his 2016 vice presidential electoral protest, while Neri was an undersecretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
They will fill out the positions vacated by former chairperson Sheriff Abas and ex-commissioners Antonio Kho and Rowena Guanzon who retired from the Comelec in February.
Andanar, for his part, defended Garcia’s appointment amid concerns over the pending disqualification cases against his former client, Marcos Jr., before the poll body.
“Garcia’s appointment went through a process,” Andanar said. “It’s a presidential prerogative.”
Meanwhile, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the newly appointed commissioners may vote in the pending case filed against Marcos Jr.
“That will be up to them because remember the ponente will take into consideration in writing the decision the discussion of the commissioners,” Jimenez said. The ponente is the commissioner responsible for writing the decision on the case.
“Now, if they want to have a decision on that or not, it is allowed.
There is no hard-and-fast rule for that,” Jimenez added.