Namfrel nominates 3 for Comelec

The National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) recommended recently to President Arroyo two controversial personalities in its list of three to fill the vacated commissioner posts at the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Namfrel chairman Jose Concepcion said they will send to Mrs. Arroyo more names for her to consider, citing the election watchdog’s "duty" to ensure that people with proper qualifications are named to the poll body.

In making its recommendation, Namfrel named one of its lawyers, Jose Bernas, computer expert Baltazar Endriga and Education Undersecretary Jose Luis Gascon.

Bernas and Endriga are no strangers to controversy. Bernas, a nephew of constitutionalist Fr. Joaquin Bernas, was the one who filed the impeachment complaint against recently retired Comelec commissioner Luzviminda Tancangco.

Namfrel has vowed to pursue a graft case against Tancangco once she stepped down.

Tancangco and Ralph Lantion completed their five-year terms as Comelec commissioners last week. Both are identified with the opposition, having been appointed during the time of ousted President Joseph Estrada.

Endriga, on the other hand, is head of the computer department of the audit company Sycip, Gorres and Velayo (SGV).

He figured in a highly publicized struggle for control of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) management in 1998 against the wife of Sen. Edgardo Angara, head of the opposition Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP).

Endriga was eventually eased out of CCP.

Gascon, meanwhile, first made a name for himself as the youngest member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission and later as executive director of the National Institute for Policy Studies.

Concepcion said they will expand the list in the coming days if the President does not name the new Comelec commissioners soon.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye had previously said there already is a "short list" but declined to name those nominated.