Brillantes: I just wanted to help folder scam execs

MANILA, Philippines - Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Sixto Brillantes admitted yesterday that he wanted to help two poll officials involved in the botched P690-million ballot secrecy folder procurement.

He clarified that he did not want former Comelec bids and awards committee chair Maria Lea Alarkon and member Francis Allen Abaya to be absolved from the case.

“I wanted to help because I felt that the six-month suspension (imposed on them by the Ombudsman) was too much for simple negligence,” he said.

Brillantes said he was thinking if the six-month preventive suspension previously served by the two can already cover for their punishment.

He admitted that he even wrote Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales about this.

Brillantes issued the statement in reaction to allegations by former Comelec legal chief Ferdinand Rafanan that behaved unethically for helping Alarkon and Abaya.

Rafanan alleged that Brillantes asked him to talk to the Ombudsman’s spokesperson on how to clear the two officials but he refused. The poll body chief, however, belied this.

“They can check the transcript of our meeting,” Brillantes said.

He asked Rafanan to shut up and not give misleading statements to malign him and the Comelec.

Brillantes added that it would be better for Rafanan to concentrate on his new assignment at the Comelec’s planning department.