MANILA, Philippines -- The two new election commissioners have bewailed the opposition to their appointment.

Commissioners Lucenito Tagle and Leonardo Leonida said Friday it was unfair that some civil society groups and politicians would question their credentials and appointment to the constitutional body.

“They should give us time to prove ourselves,” Tagle said in an interview in his empty office at the Comelec in Intramuros, Manila.

“After a while we will show to them that we are independent,” he added, stressing that he wants to help “recreate a good image” for the Comelec.

Leonida, a Malabon Regional Trial Court judge and now First Division member, said he applied for the position late last year.

He noted that he has never faced an administrative case before the Supreme Court, dismissing reports that he faced an indiscretion case.

But he admitted being investigated for allegedly anomalous release orders when he served at the Laguna Regional Trial Court but that nothing came out of it.

Last Thursday, Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. raised questions on the appointments of Tagle and Leonida, saying there appeared to be “more qualified” candidates than them.

He demanded that the President disclose why the former justice and judge were assigned to one of the most scrutinized and important agencies in the country.

There were also criticisms that the new Comelec officials were unknowns and were not in the shortlist recommended by the search committee to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

On Friday, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita defended the appointments of Tagle and Leonida by saying it was the President’s prerogative to choose and appoint whom she wants for the posts.

“It’s not a matter of who is better known, well known or not known and now from where I sit, the thing that comes into mind that’s the prerogative of the President because the guy who gets appointed doesn’t have to have some reputation before. The President knows and she has her own criteria for making the final choice. That’s her prerogative. This is not a popularity contest,” he said.

Ermita said Arroyo was exercising the authority given to her under the Constitution.

On reports that Leonida had a pending court case, Ermita said the new Comelec commissioner had shown him a document where the Supreme Court cleared him of any court case.

He added that the report said the case was filed by Leonida’s wife but his wife told him this was not true. With a report by Christine O. Avendano