House wants Comelec to act speedily on poll preparations

House national defense committee chairman Prospero Pichay has called on Commission on Elections Chairman Alfredo Benipayo to act speedily in making preparations for the scheduled barangay and sangguniang kabataan (SK) elections in July.

In a statement, Pichay warned the Comelec may well be unable to perform its constitutional mandate to conduct the scheduled elections in a clean and honest fashion.

He said acting Comelec Chairman Resurrecion Borra in an interview with dzMM yesterday morning admitted the poll body cannot as yet finalize preparations for the special registration of voters for the SK polls slated on April 22 to 27. Borra said the Comelec must await the arrival of Benipayo who in the past two weeks has been with legislators in Europe and the United States on a consultation trip for the proposed absentee voting law.

Last Friday, Comelec Commissioner Mehol Sadain said the holding of the special registration for SK voters is crucial so as not to disenfranchise an estimated three million youth aged 15 to 17 who have yet to register. Last year, the Comelec was only able to register two million voters for the SK elections.

Pichay reminded Benipayo he was duty-bound to prioritize preparations for the SK and barangay elections, which Congress in a special measure set for a special synchronized polls on July 15.

He said Benipayo should have personally attended to the poll preparations and instead sent a representative to the consultation visit. He noted that Benipayo had already himself attended the first round of consultations with overseas Filipinos some two months ago.

Benipayo is scheduled to arrive on Friday. Commissioner Mehol Sadain said this would also put in serious doubt Benipayo’s ability to meet the deadline he committed to Congress for the submission of ground rules for the holding of the Comelec’s en banc sessions.

Last month, congressional leaders from all major parties met with Comelec commissioners in an attempt to defuse the intramurals between the four incumbent commissioners and the three appointed commissioners led by Benipayo.

"The Chairman would do well to fulfill his pledge to smooth out his differences with the majority of Comelec commissioners. If he cannot do so, then he should just step aside to give the President a free hand to finally defuse the tension in the Comelec by choosing a more capable chairman."