MANILA, Philippines — The presidential palace on Monday announced that it had accepted the resignation of Commission on Election Chairperson Andres Bautista and said that this would be effective immediately.
Bautista showed reporters a letter from Malacañang stating its decision, just weeks after the COMELEC chief submitted a letter of resignation to President Rodrigo Duterte which was supposed to take effect at the end of the year.
He said that his post-dated resignation was meant to provide the chief executive enough time to search for his suitable successor.
The House of Representatives impeached Bautista just hours after he sent his resignation letter to the president, basically rejecting the recommendation of its justice panel to throw out the complaint against the COMELEC chief based on the allegations of his estranged wife that he had at least P1 billion in an unexplained wealth.
This is a developing story.