Tancangco to gather 1 million signatures to stop impeachment

Fight fire with fire.

This is the tack Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Luzviminda Tancangco has decided to take to counter a signature campaign for her impeachment.

The National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ National Secretariat of Social Action Justice and Peace (CBCP-NASSA) last week began a campaign to gather one million signatures preparatory to filing impeachment charges against Tancangco before the House of Representatives.

Namfrel and NASSA said Tancangco, who is commissioner-in-charge of Western Mindanao, is liable for culpable violation of the law for authorizing the release of P1 million to seven consultants on the Voters’ Registration and Identification System (VRIS) and for failing to automate the Comelec despite her duties as chief of the poll body’s Modernization Committee.

Tancangco said yesterday in a telephone interview that her supporters, including some congressmen, are lobbying to block any impeachment complaint against her. According to her, the impeachment charges are based "solely on personality" and she challenged her detractors to a full public discussion on the issues involved.

The pro-Tancangco signature campaign, which aims to garner a million signatures in support of Tancangco, has the support of Reps. Allan Peter Cayetano of Taguig and Raffy Biazon of Muntinlupa and Joel Villanueva of the Citizen’s Battle Against Corruption (Cibac).

Cibac, which ranked 10th in the party-list elections on May 14 last year, previously vowed to block the confirmation of Tancangco’s nemesis, Comelec Chairman Alfredo Benipayo. Villanueva also co-authored a resolution by Bulacan Rep. Willie Villarama expressing the House’s support for and confidence in Tancangco — a resolution that questioned the 10 grounds for Tancangco’s impeachment cited by Namfrel and NASSA in the two groups’ signature campaign.

Tancangco, however, refused to reveal who is financing the signature campaign to counter the Namfrel and NASSA campaign against her, as well as the person bankrolling the printing and circulation of some 15,000 booklets that have a capacity for 1.5 million signatures: "Let’s just say that somebody’s trying to help (me)."

One of the groups that approached Tancangco and offered to help, she said, was the Voice of Truth for Electoral Reforms (Voters) headed by its convenor, Voltaire Acosta, she said.

Meanwhile, Tancangco and three other Comelec commissioners have asked the poll body’s resident auditor to conduct an audit of Benipayo’s foreign trips, which were reportedly made without the proper travel authority from the Comelec.

Comelec Commissioners Rufino Javier, Ralph Lantion, Mehol Sadain and Tancangco said in a letter to Comelec resident auditor Antonio Magsanay dated May 28 that Benipayo, his executive assistant James Jimenez and Comelec Commissioner Florentino Tuason Jr. broke government regulations by failing to secure the proper travel authorities from the Comelec en banc before their departure for trips made to Hong Kong and Japan from Feb. 20 to 27 and to Rome, Italy and the cities of New York and Los Angeles in the United States from March 19 to April 7 this year.

The trips were made by the Comelec chairman and Tuason to accompany a fact-finding mission by members of the Senate committee on constitutional amendments to gather data for the pending absentee-voting bill for overseas Filipinos. However, documents showed that Benipayo traveled without a formal invitation from the legislators and that his travels included an eight-day side-trip to London from March 23 to 30 to visit one of his children studying there.

If expenses for these travels are disallowed by the Commission of Audit (COA), then Benipayo, Jimenez and Florentino would be liable for having illegally spent P2.54 million in Comelec funds, P1.285 million of which was spent by Benipayo, the four Comelec officials said in a press statement.

The four Comelec commissioners added that "Benipayo and Tuason broke long-standing rules under the Government Accounting and Auditing Manual (GAAM), and within the Comelec itself, for all Comelec officials to secure the requisite travel authority from the en banc before going abroad. Under the GAAM, officials leaving for foreign travels should support their cash advances with an authority to travel, travel itinerary and authority from the Office of the President for representation allowance."

"It is a known fact, and the records will bear (it) out, that no travel authority from the Commission En Banc was secured for the foregoing trips, hence making them, in plain and simple language, unauthorized, and the cash advances granted in connection with (these) trip(s) unlawful," the statement said.

The four Comelec commissioners earlier condemned Benipayo’s travels while the poll body was "feverishly preparing" for the upcoming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections that will take place in July.

The letter of the Senate committee on constitutional amendments regarding the fact-finding mission, which Benipayo, Jimenez and Florentino used as an attachment for their liquidation request, was not made to the Comelec commissioners.

Instead, the letter requested Benipayo "to assign a representative from your office to be a member of the Secretariat in undertaking the necessary preparations and proper coordination for the consultations."