Manila (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN) - Members of the Philippines' Commission on Appointments (CA) has warned Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. of tough grilling over possible conflict of interest between his job and cases handled by his law firm.
Sen. Franklin Drilon said the newly appointed Comelec chairman should explain to the appointments body "how he intends to conduct himself when these cases are brought for decision".
"How Chairman Brillantes will address this is a matter of serious concern because the Comelec is in charge of the most important pillar of our system, the electoral system," Drilon said in a phone interview.
"Like Caesar's wife, the members of the commission must be beyond suspicion," he added.
Senate minority leader Alan Peter Cayetano raised the issue of conflict of interest even as Brillantes was taking his oath as Comelec chair on Sunday to complete the four-year unexpired term of Jose Melo, whose resignation as chief of the poll body took effect Monday.
Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Francis Pangilinan, who like Cayetano are CA members, also voiced concern that the impartiality of the Comelec may be compromised with Brillantes at the helm.
In a news conference, Brillantes denied Cayetano's claim that his law firm had 225 election protests pending in the Comelec. He said he only had 25 and that he had dropped the cases upon his appointment over the weekend.
Move defended
Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, in a statement Monday, defended Brillantes, saying the veteran lawyer had "extensive on-the-ground expertise, not just of the law, but also of the systems and processes that govern our electoral exercises."
"The country needs someone with practical knowledge and not just theoretical understanding of election law, and an intensive knowledge of the bureaucracy, who could hit the ground running," he said.
The President said Brillantes' main task was "to ensure an orderly and credible election in 2013" and expressed confidence that he would achieve this.
But Santiago urged Brillantes to decline his appointment even though he had been sworn in.
"It might be the better part of discretion to decline the nomination because he might be so entangled in all those cases that he would have to keep inhibiting himself," she said in an interview.
If he decides to keep his post, Santiago said, this might provoke lawmakers, who were rivals of his clients, "to exercise their veto".
"He will not be acceptable to these people, unless he makes the promise of inhibition," she said.
On his first day on the job Monday, the 71-year-old Brillantes also said he would talk with Cayetano, whom he admitted could be a tough hurdle when his designation reached the CA.
"I will see him, I will talk to him and explain my position," Brillantes said in a press conference. "I hope I will be able to convince him."
Brillantes clarified that he was handling only 25 electoral protests -not 225 cases as Cayetano had earlier stated - and that he had already dropped all of them, including the case filed by retired Associate Justice Dante Tinga against the senator's wife, Taguig City mayor-elect Laarni Cayetano, who won by a slim margin of 2,420 votes.
"The public will just have to trust me... I've already called up all my clients to tell them not to bother me anymore and that they will no longer accept favours from me now that I am here," Brillantes said.
"I have to be very sure that there will be no inkling of anything - that I am favoring them," he added. - With reports from Christine O. Avenda?o, Jocelyn R. Uy and Volt Contreras
