Press Release
July 3, 2008

GMA ASKED WHY NOMINEES OF SEARCH COMMITTEE WAS IGNORED

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo must explain why she ignored the list of nominees submitted by the Malacañang Search Committee and poll watch organizations in filling up vacancies to the Commission on Elections.

Pimentel raised this query following the President's appointment of two former Court of Appeals Justice Lucenito Tagle and Judge Leonardo Leonida as commissioners of Comelec.

"I don't know enough of the new appointees to the Comelec. But if they were not in the list of the search committee, the President should explain why," he said.

The minority leader said the public is entitled to know why she chose the two for the Comelec posts, instead of picking them out from the list of nominees by the search committee and the poll watch groups.

He recalled that the Malacañang Search Committee and certain poll watch groups such as the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting and National Movement for Free Elections had earlier submitted to the President certain names for possible appointment to the Comelec.

The nominees include University of the East College of Law Dean Amado Valdez, Lawyer Persida Acosta, chief of the Public Attorneys Office of the Department of Justice, chief state prosecutor Jovencito Zuno, lawyer Howard Calleja, former Senator Rene Saguisag and Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez.

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