EDITORIAL - New man at the Comelec

In a month the elections for the Sangguniang Kabataan will be held. We can write off that electoral exercise as a disaster and a waste of taxpayers’ money. The registration was dismal, and youths themselves appear uninterested in the elections. Worst of all, the Commission on Elections, which is supposed to supervise the SK polls, is unprepared at this time to handle any electoral exercise.

Yesterday morning, probably inspired by developments at the Senate and the Commission on Human Rights, one of two warring camps staged a coup of sorts at the Comelec, electing an acting chairman to fill what was described as a hiatus in the poll body’s leadership. Elected as acting chief was Rufino Javier, who together with fellow commissioners Luzviminda Tancangco, Mehol Sadain and Ralph Lantion make up one of the two Comelec factions. All four were appointed by deposed President Joseph Estrada.

The four commissioners explained that with the Commission on Appointments bypassing the nominations of Comelec Chairman Alfredo Benipayo and Commissioners Resurreccion Borra and Florentino Tuason Jr., the nominees’ posts were deemed vacant when Congress adjourned its session last week. With Benipayo bypassed seven times by the CA, and with the developments yesterday, President Arroyo finally decided to let go of Benipayo, appointing in his stead Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman Benjamin Abalos. But the President issued new appointments to Borra and Tuason.

Abalos will have to devote his first weeks in office to uniting the warring factions and worrying about his confirmation by the CA. There are hopes that a former politician and lawyer like Abalos can reconcile the two camps. But it is doubtful that he can get the hang of his new job by the time the SK elections are held in mid-July. The bigger worry is 2004, when the nation chooses a president, vice president, senators, congressmen, governors, mayors and other local officials. At the rate things are going, we’ll still be tallying votes manually on blackboards by 2004 and worrying about massive poll fraud. Can the Comelec, which has become a national embarrassment, shape up in time for 2004?