CA defers action on Duterte nominees, waits for Marcos

MANILA, Philippines — The bicameral Commission on Appointments (CA) has again deferred deliberations on the appointments of top officials of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), Commission on Audit (COA) and Civil Service Commission (CSC), apparently to allow president-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to nominate his choices to lead the agencies when he assumes office on June 30.

The CA committee on constitutional commissions, chaired by Sen. Cynthia Villar, was scheduled to deliberate yesterday on the ad interim appointments of Comelec Chairman Saidamen Pangarungan and Commissioners Aimee Torrefranca-Neri and George Garcia, COA Chairperson Rizalina Justol and CSC Chairman Karlo Alexei Nograles after their confirmation hearings were postponed on May 25.

However, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri proposed that Marcos be given a free hand to make his own appointments, especially since top officials of the Comelec, CSC and COA have a fixed term of seven years, or longer than that of the president.

“This new president with the mandate of 31 million votes will not even be able to appoint the head of the COA until even up to the last day of his term, because she will have longer period of time than the president,” Zubiri said.

He suggested to Villar that the CA take up their appointments tomorrow, or the last day of session of the 18th Congress, and decide whether or not to reject or confirm them in the CA plenary.

He said the CA would go into a caucus to see if the appointees have enough votes –13 at least –to be confirmed.

In separate interviews, Zubiri and Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said if the appointees’ nominations are rejected, they are not likely to be appointed in the incoming administration to the same posts.

But if they are simply “bypassed” or their appointments not acted upon by the CA, Marcos may choose to reappoint some or all of them.

Drilon said if they are rejected, their terms would end on June 1.

Zubiri said an option is for the committee not act on the appointments or not recommend their confirmation to the plenary, leaving the officials bypassed.

Drilon said that under the Constitution, the president is not allowed to make appointments 60 days before the presidential elections and for this year, that fell on March 9. He said the appointees on deck were all appointed before that.

He, however, said allowing the incoming president a free hand in such a situation was a matter of policy.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III proposed that the confirmation be done on a per appointee basis, citing the case of Justol, who has no opposition to her appointment.

Pimentel said Justol was appointed last February but the CA did not act on her papers as Congress was on a break. His proposal, however, was not accepted.

“I think it’s OK…This is what Allah wants to happen, then it’s okay,” Pangarungan said after the hearing. “As far as we are concerned, the Comelec, we did our job. We tried our very best and we achieved something unprecedented.”

Garcia said he respected the decision of the CA even as he expressed satisfaction on how they handled the May 9 polls. “I’m willing to accept my fate as far as the confirmation is concerned,” he said.