More documents leak on Comelec infighting

Allegations of infractions are ping-ponging between the six Comelec commissioners and their chairman Andres Bautista for a week now. The intramurals come amidst lingering doubts about the Election 2016 vote count. And it’s awfully lopsided. Publicizing a slew of instances, the six accuse Bautista of “failure of leadership.” Official documents fly about as “proofs.” Bautista is reduced to frenzied defenses and swipes.

On the offensive are Commissioners Christian Robert Lim, Al Parreño, Luie Tito Guia, Arthur Lim, Rowena Amelia Guanzon, and Sheriff Abas.

Among the latest papers to be leaked to the media is a list of Bautista’s supposed un-liquidated cash advances. That those amount to more than P2 million dating back to May last year makes the poll body’s chief look in serious breach of state financial rules. The list details the dates, voucher numbers, purposes, and amounts of the advances:

• May 22, 2015; V-2957; “for revolving petty cash fund, Office of the Chairman, as per En Banc Resolution No. 04-1316”; P100,000;

• Aug. 7, 2015; V-5055; “to defray exp(enses) for the conduct of pre-election activities”; P500,000;

• Oct. 7, 2015; V-6923; “to defray exp. for the conduct of the monitoring on the filing of cert. of candidacy”; P500,000;

• Oct. 8, 2015; V-7023; “to defray exp. for the conduct of consultative conference with the EO’s & EA’s of Region 8”; P200,000;

• Jan. 27, 2016; V-87; “for petty cash fund for FY 2016”; P100,000;

• Jan. 28, 2016; V-1469 moved to I-May 16-89A; “to defray exp. to be incurred in his official travel to Kuwait Mar. 29-Apr. 1, 2016”; P392,775;

• Apr. 5, 2016; I-Apr. 16-17; “official travel to Riyadh Apr. 5-8, 2016”; P346,233.48

There is an entry of July 29, 2015; V-4815; “to defray exp. for the conduct of pre-election activities”; P5,000,000 – but marked “cancelled Aug. 6, 2015 c/o Roselle.” Another entry of May 3, 2016; “I-Apr. 16-17A; -do-” has no amount.

Also circulating is a June 22, 2016 letter to Bautista of former Comelec commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal, now back as election lawyer. In it the latter complains of receiving two letters from the former, both dated June 13, 2016, but with conflicting actions about an election case in Masiu, Lanao del Sur. The first, as usual hand-carried on June 14 to Larrazabal’s office across the street from the Comelec’s Manila headquarters, set a hearing for June 21. The other, which Larrazabal received by mail on June 22, stated that the Comelec en banc was to act on the case a week earlier on June 16.

In effect, Larrazabal missed the June 16 event, yet the adverse party in faraway Lanao province got their own notice on time. Not only was the June 21 hearing rendered moot, Larrazabal says, but he also virtually was uninformed about the June 16 ruling due to the only one time that the Comelec snail-mailed a letter to him.

Bautista takes on the two new leaks. He says he would look into the purported un-liquidated advances, which his former executive assistant Marina Demeterio was supposed to handle. The person no longer is connected with the Comelec, he adds.

About Larrazabal’s complaint, Bautista says the poll lawyer would do well to submit case pleadings instead of letters to him. That way the issues would form part of legal proceedings. Still, he would reply formally to Larrazabal’s points as soon as he can, he says. Bautista has just returned Sunday from a personal trip to Japan. He spent most of the time since then rebutting in media the six commissioners’ published accusations. He also presided over their morning-long en banc session yesterday. His voice was hoarse from the hectic activities.

That Japan trip is the subject of a third document leak. Guanzon had alleged that Bautista lacked the requisite travel authority for a public official to be absent from work due to foreign trip. Bautista as chairman had issued the authority to himself. C.R. Lim disputed Bautista’s power to do so. The latter says he consulted the Office of the Ombudsman and the Commission on Audit on how they did it as independent agencies like the Comelec.

The infighting is over the Comelec as a collegial body. The six commissioners allege that Bautista has a tendency to act on his own. Their first salvo came in the form of a long memo asking him to explain several occurrences:

• Delay of more than 15 days in the payment of election-duty allowances for teachers, an election offense and financial fraud because the cash cards handed out to them were unfunded;

• Exposing Comelec officers to possible criminal raps when Bautista blamed them in a press conference as the cause of delay;

• Unilateral declaration to postpone the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections;

• Failure to act on the hacking of the Comelec website, in which was leaked confidential personal information of millions of voters;

• Refusal to appoint an acting regional director for Negros Island;

• Failure to inform the en banc of a demand letter for P700,000-damages, from a mall which Bautista had assigned as voting area without clearance from the en banc;

• Unexplained absence and unexplained refusal to attend en banc sessions preparatory to the May 9 elections;

• Refusal to preside and resolve issues related to vote canvassing;

• Unilateral declaration that Smartmatic’s manipulation of the Comelec transparency server during the vote counting was merely “a cosmetic change,” prior to formal investigation; and

• Unauthorized transfer of election officers within 30 days of the elections.

The commissioners had wanted a formal reply three weeks ago. Bautista says he answered the complaints point by point in yesterday’s en banc session. The issues are unlikely to go away soon.

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