Press Release
October 31, 2007

KIKO BERATES MALACANANG FOR 'UTTER LACK OF TRANSPARENCY' IN COMELEC NOMINATION PROCESS
"Open up the selection process!"

"Open up the selection process!"

Senate Majority Leader Kiko Pangilinan today assailed Malacañang's "utter lack of transparency in the COMELEC nomination process" and urged President Gloria Arroyo to "bring the process to the people."

"In a press conference in Malacañang, Secretary Eduardo Ermita said that anyone can submit names to the search committee on the COMELEC appointees. What search committee? It seems only Malacañang is aware of the existence of this committee and if so then only they will end up submitting names for screening," Kiko lamented.

Kiko has been calling on Malacanang to open up the search process even before the poll body's beleaguered chair Benjamin Abalos resigned last October amid a bribery scandal linking him and the Palace to the botched multi-million dollar NBN ZTE project.

Aside from the post vacated by Abalos, another Comelec post has been vacant since 2002. The President is expected to appoint a new Comelec Chairman and three Commissioners before February 8, 2008 when Commissioners Resureccion Borra and Florentino Tuazon are set to retire.

"I reiterate my position that the process must be opened up. We don't even know where the search committee holds office, who are its members? Sino ba ang mga ito? Is this a secret committee similar to the secret committee conducted by them in the ZTE NBN deal? Hindi kaya sina FG, Mikey at Iggy Arroyo ang mga miyembro nito?" Kiko asked.

To totally erase doubts on the credibility of the selection process, Kiko urged Malacanang to allow the public "to actively participate in the process because only the active participation of the public will ensure that genuine reforms in our election process are realized."

"The trouble with the lack of transparency in the process is that people will doubt the outcome of the process and assume palakasan or 'connection' was the sole basis of the appointment. This undermines the capacity of the new appointees to secure critical public support," explained Kiko.

"Have the committee conduct public consultations in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao and have citizens groups, the church, people's organizations participate in the selection process. Have the nominees attend a public forum covered by the media wherein they are to be interviewed by the committee and their vision of a modernized election process presented for public scrutiny. We challenge Malacañang to have the nominees submit themselves to this public process. This is Malacañang's chance to ensure that the appointees will stand public scrutiny. The conduct of the selection process is critical if we are to get the best and the brightest to safeguard the election process and to ensure the survival of our Constitutional democracy," Kiko ended.

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