Comelec exec Kho withdraws application for SC post
MANILA, Philippines — Commission on Elections Commissioner Antonio Kho Jr. has withdrawn his application to become an associate justice of the Supreme Court.
Kho was supposed to undergo a public interview on August 11, but when the SC Public Information Office uploaded the video on Thursday night, Kho was not screened by the Judicial and Bar Council.
Citing information from the JBC, SC spokesperson Brian Hosaka said Kho withdrew his application for the SC seat vacated by recently retired Justice Edgardo delos Santos.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, an ex-officio member of the JBC, said Kho sent a letter to the panel communicating his withdrawal before the date of his public interview. But Guevarar said Kho first notified them of his withdrawal “through an email on August 3, 2021.”
The SC PIO and Guevarra both said Kho did not disclose a reason for pulling out his application.
Hosaka said no other applicants withdrew their submissions.
Who is Kho?
President Rodrigo Duterte named Kho, his fraternity brother from the Lex Taliones Fraternity, as poll commissioner in July 2018, merely three months since he resigned from his post from the Department of Justice.
Kho was formerly a justice undersecretary of the department, then under the helm of the current commissioner of the National Police Commission Vitaliano Aguirre II.
During his stint at the DOJ, Kho supervised the National Prosecution Service, the Office of the Legal Staff (State Counsels), the Technical Staff, the Bureau of Corrections, the Office of Competition, and the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel, according to his Comelec profile.
Aguirre resigned in April 2018, and Guevarra has since taken over the helm of the justice department.
On April 30, 2018, Guevarra said justice undersecretaries and assistant secretaries who served under Aguirre have all tendered their courtesy resignations.
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