Brillantes: No power vacuum when 2 commissioners step down

MANILA, Philippines - Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes yesterday said he is not bothered even if two commissioners of the poll body are scheduled to step down in February 2013.

At present, the Comelec already lacks one commissioner.

The vacancy occurred when former commissioner Augusto Lagman stepped down last April after his appointment was not renewed by Malacañang.

Brillantes said it is unlikely that there will be a vacuum because Malacañang will surely appoint replacements for commissioners Rene Sarmiento and Armando Velasco whose seven-year terms will end next year.

“It is not possible that no one will be appointed. I don’t think there will be a problem on that. Right now, we are short of one commissioner but we don’t have any problem except that instead of dividing work among seven people, we are dividing this among six people,” he said.

Until now, the Palace has not appointed a replacement for Lagman. Brillantes had recommended that a woman or a lawyer and information technology expert be tapped to take over Lagman.

“A replacement can actually be nominated now but will not be able to assume office because Congress is still in session. He will have to wait until he is confirmed (by the Commission on Appointments),” Brillantes added.

Asked what will happen in case the three posts will not be filled, the poll chief said the Comelec will still be operational but on a limited capacity.

“If there are only four of us, we can still vote and the majority will be three. But when we make big decisions, we must have unanimous votes. For small matters, three votes will do,” he said.

Brillantes also said that in such case, only he and the three commissioners will have to share the workload that should be done by seven individuals.

Assessment of bidding projects

Brillantes also said yesterday that the Comelec will assess its bidding projects for the 2013 midterm polls.

The Comelec’s Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) earlier organized biddings for the lease of warehouse for the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines, compact flash cards and electronic transmission, among others.

However, the biddings were declared failures because the bidders failed to meet SBAC’s legal, financial and technical requirements.

Brillantes said the Comelec will convene the SBAC and the Project Management Office (PMO) to know how they will go about the agency’s projects.

He added that they will look into the possibility of adjusting some project specifications and increasing the approved budget for contracts.

Yesterday, the Comelec had opened the bids submitted for the re-bidding of the warehouse for the PCOS machines.

One of the bidders is a joint venture of Smartmatic International Corp. and Total Information Management Corp. and European Apparel Manufacturing Corp.

The Comelec will also be bidding out contracts for the supply of other election materials like marking pens, folders, thermal paper and toners and services like the delivery of paraphernalia to polling precincts.