Seven contenders for Comelec posts

MANILA, Philippines - Seven names have been included in Malacañang’s shortlist to fill the two vacancies in the Commission on Elections, and one of them is an “insider,” Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said yesterday.

“There’s a shortlist, which I saw, and I promised that I would not divulge any name,” he said.

And unlike when President Aquino made two appointments to the Comelec that fell through, Brillantes said that this time, he was consulted on the shortlist.

Former Lanao del Norte representative Macabangkit Lanto and election lawyer Maria Bernadette Sardillo were appointed to the poll body but both backed out.

Lanto withdrew his appointment after some sectors raised his being unseated as representative of Lanao del Norte by the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal on allegations of electoral fraud almost 20 years ago. Sardillo, on the other hand, declined her appointment, saying her family’s wish was that she remain in the private sector.

Brillantes added he does not see any problem concerning the four persons he knew in the list.

“They’re okay to me. At least I was consulted because before I was not. I don’t know the three names there although I’ve heard of them, but I don’t know them personally,” he added. Brillantes is hopeful that the replacements of retired commissioners Rene Sarmiento and Armando Velasco would be named soon as the May 13 elections are getting closer.