GMA eyes Tanjuatco as Comelec chief, Siazon as envoy to Tokyo

A former congressman who served as legal counsel to Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson during the Senate hearings on the jueteng scandal last year is the personal choice of President Arroyo to head the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Former Rizal Rep. Emigdio "Ding" Tanjuatco Jr., Malacañang sources said, has been mentioned by the President as a possible replacement for Harriet Demetriou, whose term as chairman of the poll body lapsed Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Arroyo said yesterday she will nominate former Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo Siazon as the next ambassador to Tokyo, Japan.

The appointment of Siazon will still have to be confirmed by the Commission on Appointments and accepted formally by the Japanese government, Malacañang said in a statement.

Siazon, a career ambassador who speaks fluent Japanese, French, German and Spanish, was director general of the United Nations International Development Organization before joining the Ramos administration. His wife Kazuko is Japanese.

Sources claimed that Tanjuatco’s appointment as Comelec chief is being withheld until such time Mrs. Arroyo’s search committee completes a background check.

"The President just wants to make sure there are no derogatory information that may compromise his nomination, and that he is acceptable to sectors concerned," one source said.

Tanjuatco, a first cousin of former President Corazon Aquino, went into private practice as a lawyer after his term as congressman. He handled several electoral protest cases filed with the Comelec.

The President earlier ordered the search committee to conduct background checks on all nominees, including those for the vacancies at Comelec.

The terms of two poll body commissioners, namely Juanito Desamito and Teresita Dy-Liacco Flores, have likewise lapsed.

Presidential Spokesman Renato Corona confirmed yesterday the President was going over a short list for the top Comelec post.

"However, we are very careful here. The Comelec chairman must be acceptable to all sectors of society," he said.

Corona said the administration is very aware of the difficulties faced by the Comelec leadership, now that the national and local elections are just three months away.

Palace in favor of Namfrel

Corona said yesterday Malacañang is in favor of continuing the citizens’ quick count services like those offered by the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel).

"We have seen the valuable assistance of Namfrel in the past. Stopping this kind of operations is like preventing participation of citizens, which is not good," he said.

Last month, the Comelec junked the accreditation request by the Namfrel for the holding of a quick count in the May 14 polls.

Five out of seven Comelec commissioners voted not to accredit Namfrel, citing the lack of time to set up the quick count and the group’s known bias against then President Estrada.

Those who rejected the request were Desamito, Rufino Javier, Ralph Lantion, Mehol Sadain and Luzviminda Tancangco.

Those who voted in favor of the accreditation were Demetriou and Flores.

However, Namfrel national chairman Jose Concepcion said yesterday that the Comelec en banc has decided that the group’s possible accreditation will be decided on Feb. 14.

He said Sadain called him up the other night to relay the "good news" that Comelec en banc decided that Tancangco will no longer be required to pen the majority decision of the committee that disallows Namfrel from conducting Operation Quick Count.

"Tancangco will prepare a position paper explaining why Namfrel should not be accredited to perform a quick count. This will be submitted to the Comelec clerk of court, who in turn shall issue and order to Namfrel to appear before the Comelec en banc and respond to the position paper," Concepcion said.

The Namfrel head said he called Comelec acting chairman Javier requesting that Tancangco submit the position paper today (Feb. 9) as agreed upon, in order to give Namfrel time to prepare its response before Feb. 14.

Sadain calendared the event for Valentine’s Day, and the commissioner jokingly remarked to Concepcion that he hopes "this will not be a bloody Valentine’s Day, to which the Namfrel head replied that this will turn out to be a happy Valentine’s Day."

It has been four months since Namfrel filed a petition for accreditation, and with less than a hundred days before the elections, Namfrel has yet to receive official word about the application to perform the quick count, a job the poll watchdog has been doing since 1984.

No less than former Comelec chairman Bernardo Pardo has signified his appreciation for Operation Quick Count in 1998: "The Comelec would like to express its profound ‘thank you’ for the assistance that Namfrel rendered to the country during the May 11 national and local elections. Indeed, Operation Quick Count contributed to the public’s acceptance of the electoral results."