Bautista on calls to resign: Still praying about next move

Comelec chairman Andres Bautista. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/ Grig C. Montegrande

Commission on Elections (Comelec) chair Andres Bautista continued to bide for time to decide what his next move would be after all six of his colleagues at the commission called on him to let go—either resign or go on leave.

“I’m trying to discern at this point,” said Bautista, who faces investigation for alleged ill-gotten wealth and an impeachment case based on those allegations.

“I’m praying about what is the right course to take for my family and for the institution that we are serving now,” he said.

“Sometimes, it is not our timing but the timing of the One Above which we are looking for,” he said after attending Mass at the Manila Cathedral.

He added that he was not being indecisive. “There are a lot of ramifications so it’s necessary that the decision [I make is correct],” he said.

At the Comelec main office in Manila, several employees wore red in support of their embattled chair.

‘Not you, chairman’

On a corridor at the Comelec main office in Manila, employees set up a placard which said, “Chairman kung may dapat bumitaw, hindi ikaw. (Chairman, if someone should let go, it’s not you).”

“What they’re showing, their continuing trust—it’s heartwarming,” Bautista said about the expressions of support by employees.

Asked about accusations by his colleagues that he could no longer focus on his job, he replied, “You ask the employees who are here. I’m the one here at Comelec every day.”

Later at the Comelec office, he told reporters that he did not yet have any decision to announce.

Coup accusations

“Nothing yet but all these options, I’m thinking about them and praying over what’s the right thing to do,” he said. “So let’s wait and it will come,” he added.

On her Twitter account, Commissioner Ma. Rowena Guanzon challenged accusations that she and the other commissioners were staging a coup against Bautista.

“It’s not true that we’re staging a coup,” said Guanzon, the Comelec official most outspoken on the need for Bautista to quit.

“What will we get from it? I just want to focus on the work and Andy (Bautista) cannot focus on the work,” Guanzon said.