Melo retiring January 31

MANILA, Philippines – Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Jose Melo will avail of early retirement effective on Jan. 31, 2011, four years ahead of his scheduled retirement in 2015.

Comelec sources said that Melo had already submitted his retirement papers to President Aquino, who asked him to stay.

When Melo declined the President’s request, Aquino offered to give him another post, but the Comelec chief also declined the offer.

“Chairman Melo has been in government service for too long and he said he wanted to take a rest. He wants to take a vacation. He wants to move on,” a source told The STAR.

The 78-year-old Melo was appointed by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as Comelec chairman in 2008 after retiring from the Supreme Court as associate justice. He has been working for the government for 40 years now.

A source said Melo met Aquino last month to discuss his plans to retire early.

“He said that his reason for being in the Comelec is for the automation of the May 10 elections. He was able to do that successfully so the chairman felt it’s time for him to go,” the source added.

The sources said that Melo also wanted to give Aquino a free hand in choosing new poll officials, since he was appointed by Arroyo.

But a source said that Melo’s desire to retire early was brought about by rumors being circulated at the Comelec that he would make money when the poll body purchases its own precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines to be used in hearing cases regarding electoral protest.

There were reports that the Comelec plans to buy from Smartmatic Corp. and its local partner Total Information Management Corp. (TIM) hundreds of PCOS machine that would be used to validate contested ballots during hearings on thousands of electoral protest cases filed by defeated candidates in the last May 10 elections in various parts of the country that are now pending at the commission.

“He doesn’t like rumors like that so he decided to pursue his plan,” the source added.

When Melo retires, the Comelec will have three vacancies since Commissioners Gregorio Larrazabal and Nicodemo Ferrer are also retiring in February 2011.