GMA to continue mediation efforts on Comelec intramurals

President Arroyo said yesterday she would continue her efforts to help embattled Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Alfredo Benipayo mend fences with his four arch adversaries in the poll body.

President Arroyo disclosed in her weekly radio program she would host anew a dinner meeting between Benipayo and each of his four Comelec colleagues.

The Chief Executive reiterated her belief that she could still find a solution to the "personality clashes," which she noted was dividing the Comelec between her three appointees, namely, Benipayo and Commissioner Resurreccion Borra and Florentino Tuason Jr. and the four appointees of deposed President Joseph Estrada.

The four Estrada appointees are Comelec Commissioners Luzviminda Tancangco, Rufino Javier, Ralph Lantion and Mehol Sadain.

Javier would be the first to be invited for luncheon meeting at the Palace with the President and Benipayo.

"Commissioner Javier, being a former politician, should really know how to get along with people and know how to resolve personality issues," President Arroyo pointed out.

The President recalled her talks with the four Estrada Comelec appointees during a dinner she hosted at Malacañang last month where she said she was able to differentiate the "substantive issues" and "personality issues" they had raised against the Comelec chairman.

After that dinner, she disclosed, she had a separate luncheon meeting with Benipayo and explained to him the "personality issues" raised against him by his colleagues in the seven-man poll body.

"So I said we can have another meeting just to resolve the personality issues," the President pointed out.