THE Commission on Appointments yesterday confirmed the appointments of George Garcia as Commission on Elections chairman and Alexis Nograles as Civil Service Commission chairman.
Garcia, who was first appointed by former President Duterte as Comelec commissioner and Nograles, also appointed by Duterte as CSC chairman, were two of the five appointees of Duterte bypassed by the CA last June.
The other appointees bypassed then were former Comelec chairman Saidamen Pangarungan, Comelec commissioner Aimee Torrefranca-Neri, and Commission on Audit chairperson Rizalina Justol.
Then Senate majority leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said the five were bypassed to give President-elect Marcos Jr. the chance to pick his choice for the posts.
Garcia and Nograles will serve up to February 2, 2029.
Garcia’s appointment was approved despite an opposition filed by one Leonor Barcelon-Whale, who accused him of taking away their family’s penthouse unit in Makati City without paying a single centavo.
In her opposition filed before the CA, Whale alleged that Garcia rented their condo unit at the 43rd floor of Shang Grand Tower in Makati City from August 2009 to February 2010. He apparently expressed interest to buy the condo unit sometime in September 2009 for P53 million.
Whale said Garcia issued two checks for a total of P50 million as initial payment for the unit coursed through a certain Ms. Pastores, Garcia’s supposed agent.
Whale said the checks bounced. Garcia then reportedly issued two more checks but Whale said bank officials claimed “they were stolen checks.”
Whale terminated the rent agreement with Garcia and ordered him to move out of the condo unit. After a few days, however, Whale said Garcia presented documents showing he had already bought the condo unit.
Whale filed for a declaration of nullity of deed of assignment and deed of sale with prayer for preliminary injunction and/or Temporary Restraining Order before the Makati City Regional Trial Court. The court later dismissed the case.
Rep. Lani Mercado-Revilla, a member of the CA panel, asked Garcia to explain the opposition filed against him by Whale. In response, Garcia said he was a recipient of trumped-up charges, adding they were “simple harassment.”
He said he did not want to discuss the merits of the case before the CA panel, adding the case had been dismissed with finality by the courts.
“This, I believe, is pure and simple harassment. For the past 12 years I have received a lot of cases not only from the IBP (integrated Bar of the Philippines) up to the Supreme Court, to the Regional Trial Court, to the Department of Justice, to the Bureau of Internal Revenue, to the Court of Tax Appeals. Name it, I received all of these cases and survived because all of these cases were dismissed with finality by the courts. I don’t want to discuss the merits (of the case) because I believe it is not for this body, it is not the proper forum,” Garcia said.
Rep. Rodante Marcoleta, another CA panel member, noted that the opposition and cases filed against Garcia “emanated from one single transaction,” which were all decided in favor of Garcia. He said that Garcia won the cases “by summary judgment,” which did not involve a full-blown trial.
“We cannot ignore the dismissal of the cases. George Garcia won all these cases in all the investigating agencies and the courts,” Marcoleta said.
Garcia said the Comelec plans to “retire” more than 90,000 vote counting machines, adding problems will arise if the poll body uses them for the 2025 mid-term elections and beyond.
He said the same set of VCMs have been used in the past three elections.
Garcia said the Comelec intends to rent VCMs since buying new ones would be impractical as technology changes every six months, aside from incurring additional expenses because the Comelec needs to store and maintain them.
“It’s cheaper if we lease vote counting machines and the one who will rent it for us will make sure that the machines’ specs are the latest. But we will wait for Congress on what type of machines to be used, what the specifications are. We will wait for Congress’ guidance,” he added.
Garcia also assured lawmakers that his being a former election lawyer for Marcos will not get in the way of his functions and duties at the poll body.
Nograles said the CSC is in the process of filling up vacancies in government after records showed more than 150,000 unfilled posts in the civil service and around 630,000 more covered by job orders and contracts of service.
“The commission is finding ways and means, drafting policies to enable without sacrificing, of course, the merit and fitness, because that has always been our primordial standard in the civil service. They can enter based on merit and fitness,” Nograles said when he was questioned by Sen. Risa Hontiveros on what he plans to do with the unfilled government positions.
“We are looking for ways and means for more civil servants to be able for them to enter civil service and we will continue to push for more of our current vacancies filled up for more of our fellow Filipinos to enter civil service,” he added.
He said the latest issuances of the Department of Budget and Management and Commission on Audit state that deserving individuals who are on job orders and contract of service status will be absorbed by the government until December 31.
