EDITORIAL - Comelec gives up independence to Palace

The Comelec is no longer as independent as the law may have intended it to be. Somewhere down the line, it has compromised its independence and allowed itself to be subjugated by the wielders of real power in anything related to elections -- the sitting administration.

In fairness to the Aquino administration, it merely inherited the situation. But at no time is the subjugation of the Comelec by a sitting administration more obvious and shameful than it is now.

At least in the previous administration, the subjugation by the Comelec got snowed under by the mass of other perceived irregularities at the time and hardly became noticeable. But under the Aquino administration, the subjugation of the Comelec sticks out like a sore thumb.

And that is because this administration never fails to seize every opportunity to project itself as squeaky clean, never mind if such claims grow limp under the weight of evidence to the contrary.

And no evidence to the contrary is more glaring than the very actuations of the Comelec itself, or to be more precise, of its chairman, Sixto Brillantes. On at least two occasions, Brillantes publicly deferred to the president, thereby underscoring the obvious.

Frustrated by a series of reversals at the Supreme Court, Brillantes threatened to resign his post as head of the poll body. When days passed and he still had not resigned, Brillantes told a media pressing him for answers that he needed to consult the president first.

What? Is Brillantes working for the president that he needed to consult him as to whether he should resign or not? But that is not all because, on a subsequent occasion, Brillantes again publicly said he was leaving his decisions to the president.

Asked by Pinky Webb on ANC last Friday, May 24, whether the barangay elections will be reset (as he had publicly proposed) or held as scheduled in October (as President Aquino publicly preferred), Brillantes replied that the president already said what he wanted and that is that.

So crucial decisions are no longer up to the Comelec to make. It must now defer to what the president wants. Wonder what factor this situation played in the hasty proclamation of Senate “winners” or in the so-called 60-30-10 scheme. Is Comelec being “Garcied” by the nose?