Arroyo boys to have numbers in Comelec

The Arroyo administration could well have the numbers in the Commission on Elections (Comelec) soon.

Comelec Commissioners Luzviminda Tancangco and Ralph Lantion are stepping down today, potentially shifting the balance of influence on the commission’s decisions in favor of the administration.

The end of the terms of Tancangco and Lantion would pave the way for President Arroyo to appoint two more commissioners to the poll body, bringing to five the number of her appointees in the seven-member Comelec.

One of those the President has appointed to the Comelec is former Mandaluyong mayor Benjamin Abalos, who is now the poll body’s chairman.

The opposition has expressed apprehension that with the elections coming in May, the administration might not be able to resist the temptation to appoint administration-friendly people to the Comelec.

Abalos said the Comelec is not recommending anybody for the President to appoint, but Commissioner Resurreccion Borra said they prefer lawyers to replace Tancangco and Lantion — although the law only requires that the majority of the commission’s members be lawyers.

However, there are still no confirmed candidates to replace Tancangco and Lantion, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said.

Bunye denied reports quoting opposition Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. as saying that Malacañang was trying to get Noli Barcelona and Herun Alonto appointed to the Comelec to replace the outgoing commissioners.

Pimentel said Barcelona and Alonto are both closely associated with Pancho Villaraza of the Villaraza-Angangco Law Office, the law firm of the First Family.

The law firm had been linked to an attempt to forge the citizenship records of actor and opposition presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr.

"As of yesterday, the President was still undecided on this matter, so we really don’t know where Sen. Nene Pimentel got his (information)," Bunye said in an interview over dzBB radio.

Bunye said the information that came out about the two new appointees is premature.

"We assure the people that the commissioners who will replace the retirees shall be selected based on their competence, integrity and capability to enforce the election laws properly," Bunye said.

Tancangco and Lantion are set to retire from the Comelec today after serving for six years.

Both were appointees of ousted President Joseph Estrada in 1998, when they took over the terms of their predecessors, who served for only one year.

Meanwhile, Bunye said the President is ready to undergo the mandatory drug test and other tests required by the Comelec of all candidates for election.

Bunye was reacting to the statement of Abalos that all candidates for elective posts must undergo drug testing - including the President.

He said the President has been at the forefront of the campaign against illegal drugs so, whatever is provided for under the law regarding drug testing, the public can be assured that she will be the first to subject herself to the requirements of the law.

"If she is asked to (undergo drug testing) and if this is what is stated under the law, then that is what the President will do," Bunye said.

Lantion is expected to run for congressman in Isabela, but he refuses to confirm this report until after his formal retirement.

"I do not want to say yet if I am running or not," Lantion said. "I will say it once: I am an ordinary civilian."

Lantion said that, while the filing of certificates of candidacy has lapsed, he said "somebody may be willing to be substituted" with him. He also refused to state which party he will join in the event that he decides to run for Congress, but said that, "definitely, I would be joining the sure winners."

Lantion said a dinner was organized by Abalos in honor of himself and Tancangco. Both outgoing Comelec commissioners will be given P5 million each as part of their retirement packages.

Tancangco was one of the Comelec’s more controversial commissioners, having engaged the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) leadership in a debate over the Voters’ Registration and Identification System (VRIS) project, the P500 million precinct mapping project and other, smaller issues.

The Comelec awarded the P6.5-billion VRIS contract to the firm Photokina, in a bidding process questioned by Namfrel. This led to the filing of betrayal of public trust and corruption charges against Tancangco.

However, with the graft charges lodged against her, Tancangco may find difficulty collecting her benefits.

"Congress never investigated our impeachment complaint. All it did was count heads (votes) and junk it," Namfrel chairman Jose Concepcion said in an earlier interview. "We wanted them to send it back to the committee on justice so she (Tancangco) could defend herself, but they never did."

Before the two Comelec commissioners can formally retire, however, they are expected to complete a "terminal report" for each project they supervised.

Lantion was the head of the Comelec bids and awards committee (BAC), while Tancangco headed the poll body’s modernization committee, which has since been subdivided into the three phases of the Comelec’s controversial poll modernization program.

For the subdivided modernization levels, Tancangco was assigned the first phase of the P1-billion registration and validation of voters and the P300-million third phase, which is the satellite transmission of data. The second phase of the poll modernization project, which involves the purchase of P1.3 billion worth of automated counting machines (ACMs), was put under Borra.

Besides the graft case lodged against Tancangco by Namfrel, Pimentel also filed graft charges against all seven Comelec commissioners for approving the P1.3 billion automation contract which was nullified by the Supreme Court for the Comelec’s failure to comply with bidding rules.

The graft case filed by Pimentel is a test case, since the Comelec is a constitutional body and its members can only be impeached while they are sitting members of the commission.