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Friday, March 29, 2024

Colleagues slam Comelec chief

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COMMISSION on Elections Chairman Andres Bautista  on Friday  shrugged off a memo from his fellow commissioners, who took him to task for “failed leadership” and the delay in release of payments to teachers who served as board of election inspectors during the  May 9  polls.

“This is old news. I have prepared a response and met with several commissioners about this already,” he said in a text message.

On Thursday, the other members of the Commission en banc issued a strongly worded memo to Bautista asking him to explain why there was a delay in the release of honoraria for the board of election inspectors and other poll workers.

Bautista also shrugged off their assessment that there was a failure of leadership in the poll body.

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“I find the phrase ‘failure of leadership’ ironic after the May 2016 elections, which most believe was the fastest, most organized and successful elections in Philippine history,” he said.

COMMISSION on Elections Chairman Andres Bautista

Bautista added, “Was the holding of nationwide presidential debates after 24 years a manifestation of failure of leadership as well?”

The commissioners also assailed Bautista for issuing statements to the media favoring the postponement of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in October .

“The Commission on Elections exists primarily for the holding of elections. The unilateral statement of the chairman places the entire organization in bad light as being lazy to conduct the elections,” they said.

The Comelec officials noted that Bautista also failed to immediately act on the hacking of the Comelec website.

Those who signed the memo were commissioners Christian Robert Lim, Luie Guia, Al Parreño, Arthur Lim, Rowena Guanzon, and Sheriff Abas.

Christian Robert Lim denied suggestions that they were trying to force Bautista to resign, but said they wanted him to change the way he handled the Comelec.

“We talked already and we don’t want him to resign. Probably, what we want to see are improvements in the commission,” Lim said. “We don’t want him to resign. We believe all issues are solvable.”

Guanzon also agreed.

“Why should I ask him to resign? He should just come back from his travel abroad and sit down with us. We have been asking him to sit down with us,” she said in a separate interview.

The clarification of Guanzon and Lim come after all six commissioners issued a memo against Bautista on June 3, expressing their disappointment over his leadership.

“At the outset and with all due respect, we, the commissioners constituting the majority of the commission en banc, express our position of a failed leadership of the Comelec,” the memo said.

The memo, which has not been released to the public, detailed some 15 issues and concerns.

Commissioner Arthur Lim, in signing the memo, said he was doing so with a “heavy heart.”

Among the issues raised in the memo by the six commissioners are the manner by which the weekly en banc meetings are being conducted, the failed mall voting project, and the delays in the payment of teachers who served as board of election inspectors.

Lim disclosed that one of the malls that had agreed to be part of Bautista’s junked pet project, mall voting, had sought a reimbursement of P1 million.

“Part of your procurement plan is to pay for them. But how can we justify that before the Commission on Audit? How can you pay for something that you never procured in the first place?” Lim said.

Guanzon pointed to the delayed payment of public school teachers as among the issues that Bautista needs to address.

“We were really concerned about this late payment of the teachers. And there is a law that says that if you delay more than 15 days, that is criminal offense. We really pity them,” Guanzon said.

Also  on Friday, Arthur Lim questioned Robert Christian Lim’s view that the 30-day deadline for the filing of statements of contributions and expenditures (SOCE) was non-extendable.

“We did not purposely favor the Liberal Party or anyone in particular. It was incidental that LP was the requesting party,” Lim said in a text message.

Lim was reacting to the statement of Kabataan Partylist Rep. Sarah Elago claiming that the commissioners who favored the request of Liberal Party and its losing bet Manuel Roxas II should be held accountable for violations of Republic Act 7166 and Comelec Resolution 9991.

He then suggested the Comelec’s critics to read its resolution and RA 7166 “very carefully” before making accusations.

“It is the filing that is mandatory, but the 30-day period fixed therein is extendible as was repeatedly done by the Commission in 2010 and 2013,”Lim said.

He added that the “hard deadline” of 30 days is not written in the law.

Section 14 of RA 7166 reads:

“Sec. 14. Statement of Contributions and Expenditures; Effect of Failure to File Statement. – Every candidate and treasurer of the political party shall, within thirty (30) days after the day of the election, file in duplicate with the offices of the Commission the full, true and itemized statement of all contributions and expenditures in connection with the election.

“No person elected to any public offices shall enter upon the duties of his office until he has filed the statement of contributions and expenditures herein required.

“The same prohibition shall apply if the political party which nominated the winning candidate fails to file the statement required herein within the period prescribed by this Act.” – With PNA

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