Brillantes, Cayetano engage in word war anew

MANILA, Philippines - Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. and Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano engaged in another word war during yesterday’s budget hearings.

Cayetano has expressed alarm over the apparent lack of concern of the Comelec on the issue of ballot printing – from the bidding stage down to the printing of ballots to be used for next year’s national elections.

The senator grilled Brillantes anew after he received reports of deficiencies in the capabilities of the supplier appointed by the National Printing Office (NPO).

The Comelec and the NPO awarded the ballot printing to Holy Family Printing despite video showing ink bleeding in their printed ballots and the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines’ inability to process the ballots – an event that occurred eight out of 10 times during testing.

“I am not prepared to discuss this in a budget hearing. But if we will talk about technical, we will bring all the technical (people) here,” Brillantes told the budget panel.

As acting chairman of the oversight committee, Cayetano reminded Brillantes that any issue can be asked during budget hearings.

“I may be young but I have been in government for 20 years... in Congress for 14 years. All these questions I ask here involve budget allocation. So Mr. Chair, I am not asking you general issues about the responsibility of the agency,” he said.

At the start of hearing, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile urged the panel to approve the Comelec budget, which is pegged at P8.42 billion for next year. 

The exchanges between Brillantes and Cayetano continued after the latter asked why the agency favored the NPO, which delegated the ballot printing to a third party, as against Smartmatic.

After more than two hours, the Senate committee on finance chaired by Sen. Franklin Drilon finally approved the Comelec budget and recommended it for plenary approval.

“We have to somehow wrap up the hearings,” Drilon said.

Brillantes said that he has been tired of explaining every issue to Cayetano and yet he refused to hear his answers. He said he thinks the senator is getting “personal” by bringing out issues against him during the budget deliberations.

Cayetano then challenged Brillantes to resign.

Brillantes said all of Cayetano’s concerns have been discussed in the media and at Comelec meetings.

At one point, Cayetano challenged the Comelec commissioner to run for Congress if he does not want to be questioned.

“All that we ask is to be fair to us. If we were given advance notice that we will be asked (on the technicalities), then we will be ready,” Brillantes said.

Meanwhile, a list of the Comelec’s Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) showed that only two out of the 12 services needed in the 2013 midterm polls have been accomplished by the agency. a