Wanted: Female Comelec commissioner

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rene Sarmiento called on President Arroyo to appoint a woman as the poll body’s chairman to promote gender equality.

Sarmiento said in a statement that the Comelec has been a predominantly male agency in its almost 70-year history.

He said only one woman had been appointed Comelec chief, retired judge Harriet Demetriou.

“Even the past commissioners were predominantly male. The present ones are all male,” he added.

Comelec records showed that of the 69 commissioners who served the Comelec since 1940, only six were women, including Court of Appeals Justices Remedios Fernando and Teresita Dy-Liaco Flores, Evalyn Fetalino, Luzviminda Tancangco and the late Haydee Yorac.

Sarmiento said the observance of gender balance in the Comelec would promote the poll body’s credibility and pave the way for gender equality in the recruitment and appointment of regional directors.

“Gender balance will strengthen the institution because it can tap and make good use of a women’s strengths which, according to Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and chairman of Women Council Leaders, includes being good negotiators, communicators and networkers,” he added.

Sarmiento has invoked Article 11 Section 14 of the 1987 Constitution which states that the State recognizes the role of women in nation-building, and shall ensure the fundamental equality before the law of women and men.

“Note that the word women is written ahead of men. The sequence bears the imprint of Justice Cecilia Muñoz Palma, president of the Constitutional Commission of 1986 and first female associate justice of the Supreme Court,” he claimed.

Sarmiento said Palma prevailed that women be ahead of men to stress the point that women can be the equals of men.

“It is now a given that women can be equally good as men, if not better, or can be equally tough as men, if not tougher, in corporate or public sector administration and management,” he said.

He said that several countries have already observed gender balance in election management bodies, like Argentina, Belgium, Pakistan, Cambodia, Latvia, South Africa and Indonesia.

At present, the position of Comelec chairman is vacant. Commissioner Resurreccion Borra has assumed the post as acting chairman, but when he and Commissioner Florentino Tuason retire in February next year, three seats will be vacated.

“Gender balance in the Comelec will earn plus points for the Philippines internally.  It will affirm four major international instruments of the United Nations that declare the equal rights of men and women and recognize the potency that women can play in the political and public life of the country,” Sarmiento added.