No reshuffle at poll body, new Comelec chairman vows

There will be no reshuffle at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) when its new chairman, Benjamin Abalos, assumes his new post this week.

"I am not in the habit of changing people in every office I’m in because they are there when I came in," Abalos said in an interview. "And their loyalty should not be with me or with their former chief but with the institution they are serving."

It would be premature to implement any revamp at this point since he has yet to familiarize himself with how work is done at the Comelec, Abalos added.

He feels his job at the Comelec will not be as difficult compared to his former job as chairman of the Metro Manila Development Authority.

"My job at the MMDA was more difficult because there I was handling 17 city and municipal mayors. Here, we are only seven (one chairman and six commissioners)," he said.

Abalos’s predecessor, Alfredo Benipayo, revamped the commission a month after he assumed office over a year ago. Benipayo said he wanted to give the commissioners more time to work on pending election cases.

Benipayo took over the modernization committee from Commissioner Luzviminda Tancangco. Tancangco was also replaced as head of the printing committee, now under director Ester de Mesa.

Commissioners Ralph Lantion and Mehol Sadain were taken off the bids and awards committee and were replaced by senior officials.

Lantion was also replaced as chief of the selection and promotions board by the personnel director, while Sadain was also taken off the shipping committee.

Last week, President Arroyo appointed Abalos to replace Benipayo, whose one-year stint had been marred by internal bickering. Benipayo did not see eye to eye with commissioners Rufino Javier, Lantion, Sadain and Tancangco – all appointees of ousted President Joseph Estrada. Both sides differed on how to modernize the country’s election system.

Abalos earlier said his first order of business was to end the bickering at the Comelec.

An ally of Mrs. Arroyo, Abalos met with Tancangco, Javier, Lantion and Sadain over dinner at his Mandaluyong residence last week to touch base with them and mend fences.

They discussed plans on how to go about in modernizing the country’s antiquated electoral system such as purging cheats from the Comelec’s list of registered voters and computerizing the counting of ballots.

A victim of poll fraud himself, Abalos vowed to modernize the country’s electoral system and rid it of cheaters.

Abalos served 10 years as a judge, a prosecutor and a mayor for several terms. During the Marcos dictatorship, he lost in several bids for assemblyman and mayor.

Former Marikina Mayor Bayani Fernando was named MMDA chairman to replace Abalos.