PPCRV chair lauds appointment of new Comelec commissioners

MANILA, Philippines - Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) chair Henrietta de Villa yesterday said that she was pleased that all the seven positions for commissioner in the Commission on Elections (Comelec) have been filled three months before the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) polls.

Malacañang announced last Wednesday the appointment of information and technology (IT) expert Augusto Lagman as the newest Comelec commissioner, replacing Nicodemo Ferrer who retired last February.

“I am glad that they (commissioners) are already complete, the quorum is complete and they have an IT expert,” said De Villa, a former ambassador to the Vatican.

Lagman’s appointment was made more than three months before the Aug. 8 ARMM polls.

“I suppose that Commissioner Lagman would know how to fit into the group because election work is not just one man, it is the work of the entire commission and also of the en banc. They have to learn how to work with one another, not only for whatever they think is right but whatever would be good for the nation and for the election,” she said.

Lagman, 71, led the group that opposed the Comelec when the poll body used the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines in last year’s election.

De Villa declined to comment on the issue and only said, “We all have our own personal opinion. The (Comelec) en banc is made up of seven people. I am sure that what would prevail in Gus Lagman is what is good for the country, what is good for the election.”

De Villa maintained that she believed that for the ARMM, “there is too little time to try another technology if there would be a bidding. If it is automated and it should be automated, we should use something like PCOS. I am speaking for voters… there might not be sufficient time to teach them a new technology. But we should place safeguards that others thought were lacking in the May 2010 election.”        

New official wants   manual ARMM polls

Lagman yesterday pushed for the return of the manual system of elections in the ARMM.

Lagman said he would try to convince the other Comelec commissioners to allow a manual election when he joins them for his first meeting next week.

Although the law mandates computerized elections in ARMM, Lagman explained that it would be illogical for the Comelec to re-use the PCOS machines in the Aug. 8 polls since elections there are very “simple.”

He noted how the ARMM elections would only involve a minimal number of candidates vying for governor, vice governor and 24 legislative assembly members.

“It is just like you going to your neighbor’s house. Will you still use your car? It is a very simple election. We have to be sensible in using our resources,” explained Lagman.

Lagman said the use of PCOS would cost the Comelec a huge amount of money aside from the required storage fees before and after use.

As this developed, election lawyer Romulo Macalintal said Lagman’s opposition to the use of PCOS would eventually lead to the new commissioner’s disqualification or inhibition from pending electoral protest cases.                

Macalintal explained that all the losers in the May 2010 election who filed election protest before the Comelec and the various regional trial courts assailed the use of PCOS while all the winners whose victory had been contested are also one in defending the accuracy and effectiveness of the machines.

He said Lagman apparently is unaware of the ongoing revision and recount of ballots of the protests now being conducted by the Comelec and the courts where no significant variances or irregularities were noted between the results of the PCOS count and that of the physical counting of the ballots. – With Mayen Jaymalin