PRESIDENT Duterte appointed National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) Secretary Saidamen Pangarungan as the new chairman of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), along with former Department of Social Welfare and Development undersecretary Aimee Neri and election lawyer George Garcia as new commissioners.
Communications secretary and newly named acting presidential spokesman, Martin Andanar made the announcement during his first briefing as spokesman yesterday.
Andanar, who replaced Karlo Nograles who was appointed as chairman of the Civil Service Commission (CSC), will be assisted by Communications Undersecretary and acting deputy spokesman Kris Ablan.
Pangarungan, a lawyer and former governor of Lanao del Sur, Sheriff Abas, who retired as Comelec chief last February 22, three months before the May 9, 2022 national and local elections.
Neri, also a lawyer, was formerly with the Bureau of Customs and a former assistant secretary at the Department of Justice while Garcia, a veteran election lawyer, was among the lawyers of presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in his election case against Vice President Leni Robredo.
Asked if there is a possible conflict of interest on the appointment of Garcia and his being Marcos’ former election lawyer, Andanar said the question is best answered by the Comelec.
The Comelec has yet to resolve some pending disqualification cases against Marcos.
Manila Mayor and Aksyon Demokratiko standard bearer Isko Moreno said he is happy over the appointment of Garcia, his former campaign legal counsel.
Moreno said Garcia’s appointment bodes well for the conduct of elections in the country as his expertise is on election law.
“I’m happy for him because his specialty is election law,” Moreno said, noting that Garcia previously served as dean of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila College of Law.
Garcia also served as the legal counsel of Sen. Grace Poe in the disqualification cases filed against her when she ran for the presidency in the 2010 elections.
Moreno said he is confident Garcia would be a fair and just Comelec commissioner.
“He’s really a professional and his specialty is election law. With George at the Comelec, the country is in a good place,” Moreno said.
Meanwhile, one of the trial court judges who issued the search warrants in the “Bloody Sunday” operations that resulted into the deaths of nine activists in Calabarzon has been appointed associate justice of the Court of Appeals.
Manila RTC First Vice Executive Judge Jose Lorenzo dela Rosa was appointed CA associate justice, replacing retired Justice Edgardo Lloren.
Dela Rosa’s appointment paper was dated March 7 and received by the office of Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo yesterday.
Dela Rosa issued at least three search warrants used by the police in the “Bloody Operations,” including the warrant for the Rosario, Cavite residence of Emmanuel “Manny” Asuncion, who was among the nine killed in the said operations.
At the time of his death, Asuncion was the secretary general of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) in Cavite.
The two other search warrants covered the homes in Cabuyao city, Laguna of Esteban Mendoza and Elizabeth Camoral.
Rights group DEFEND Southern Tagalog slammed Dela Rosa’s appointment, with the noting it was made exactly one year after the Calabarzon deaths.
“Duterte’s appointment of Bloody Sunday judge Jose Lorenzo dela Rosa as associate justice of the Court of Appeals reeks of impunity. Judge dela Rosa is squarely responsible for issuing poor pro-forma death warrants that marked the nine killed last year as guilty without a day defending themselves in court,” the group said.
The outcry over the so-called “warrant factories” led the Supreme Court to issue an order scrapping the power of the Manila and Quezon City RTC executive judges to issue roving warrants or warrants outside their territorial jurisdiction.
