THE Commission on Appointment yesterday approved a motion that will allow the body to amend errors in the names and other details of the nominees to avoid delays in their confirmations.
The CA approved the motion of Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri after Sen. Rodante Marcoleta, during deliberations on the confirmation of appointments of 20 officials from the Armed Forces, raised the issue of mistakes on the names, ranks, and designations in past confirmation hearings, which inconvenienced a lot of nominees.
Marcoleta recalled there was an instance when a Navy officer was supposed to be confirmed as a Rear Admiral, but the papers submitted to the CA committee on national defense show that he had a rank of Major. General, a rank in the army.
He said the panel returned the official’s papers to the concerned office, but the official suffered from depression and was not eventually confirmed until he retired from service.
He also said there was an instance when 11 officers of the Armed Forces were set to be confirmed, but it turned out there were errors in the spelling of some of their names, family names, and middle names.
It took at least two months before the errors were corrected, Marcoleta said.
Zubiri said such errors can be corrected at the CA level, so the confirmation will not be delayed.
“These typographical errors, they are clerical errors that can be quickly resolved by the Commission on Appointments. So, my motion, Mr. Chairman, is that I move that we amend the rules of the Commission on Appointment to address the issues concerning and surrounding the discrepancies of nominations or appointment papers to be referred to the Committee of Rules,” Zubiri said.
He said the CA can ask the Office of the Executive Secretary to issue certifications that will correct the errors.
Senate President Francis Escudero said he has monitored the CA meeting to confirm the appointments of 20 armed forces officials, and asked that the same can be done in meetings of other CA panels.
Zubiri replied in the affirmative.
Escudero approved the motion after no members of the CA opposed the motion.
“Hearing none, motion is approved. Chair directs the Committee on Rules to study the matter and to prepare the corresponding proposal for plenary action insofar as the possibility of amending our rules to that effect,” Escudero said.
