Ex-Lanao del Sur governor tapped to head Comelec

The newly appointed Comelec, Saidamen Pangarunga, was San Beda College graduate like President Rodrigo Duterte and was governor of Lanao del Sur. (INQUIRER.net stock iimage)

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte has filled the three vacancies in the Commission on Elections (Comelec), naming as chair a law graduate of the then San Beda College like himself and as commissioners a social welfare undersecretary and a former election lawyer of presidential candidates Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso.

The names of the three appointees were announced on Tuesday at a press briefing by acting presidential spokesperson Martin Andanar, who said Duterte’s “directive” was “to ensure honest, peaceful, credible and free elections.” They will take over the posts vacated by the retirement last month of Chair Sheriff Abas and Commissioners Rowena Guanzon and Antonio Kho Jr.

The new chair of the Comelec is Saidamen Pangarungan, most recently the secretary of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) and governor of Lanao del Sur from 1988 to 1992. He was vice president of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan or PDP-Laban, originally a coalition of two minority parties that opposed Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship, in 1984.

The new commissioners are Social Welfare Undersecretary Aimee Torrefranca Neri and George Erwin Garcia, who handled Marcos Jr.’s election protest against Vice President Leni Robredo in 2016 and who was Domagoso’s election lawyer until Monday.

Asked whether Malacañang was concerned that Garcia’s associations could involve conflict of interest, Andanar said the appointees had been duly scrutinized.

“They underwent a vetting process, and we should respect the prerogative of the President to choose who to appoint. Again, they were not chosen carelessly. It was a long process and there was a vetting process,” he said.

Reacting to Garcia’s appointment, Marcos Jr.’s spokesperson Victor Rodriguez told reporters in Bulacan that he was offering his congratulations.

Neri first served in the Duterte administration in 2016 when she was named assistant justice secretary. A year later, she was moved to the Bureau of Immigration as deputy commissioner.

In that post, she led an “information caravan” against the trafficking of women. She quit in April 2018 and was later named social welfare undersecretary.

Sultan of Madaya

Pangarungan, who was enthroned sultan of Madaya in Marawi City on July 5, 2009, was governor of Lanao del Sur when Duterte was on his first term as elected mayor of Davao City.

The President appointed him NCMF secretary on July 9, 2018. Guiling Mamondiong, former administrator of the Local Water Utilities Administration, will take his place at the commission.

A consistent college scholar, Pangarungan completed a liberal arts degree in 1971 and a law degree in 1976. He passed the bar examinations in the same year with a weighted average of 85.6.

In 1979, he ran as an opposition candidate against the then-ruling Kilusang Bagong Lipunan and won as assemblyman of the now-defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

After the 1986 Edsa uprising that toppled the dictatorship, President Corazon Aquino appointed Pangarungan acting governor of Lanao del Sur, replacing Marcos ally Mohamad Ali Dimaporo.

He was also named interior undersecretary. His inquiry into ghost barangays in Mindanao led to the abolition of some 2,000 supposed barangays in two Lanao provinces.

His gubernatorial post became official in 1988 when he was elected, and he served until 1992.

‘Attorney George’

In Tarlac City, Domagoso vouched for the character of his former election lawyer, who is also dean of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila Law Center.

Asked by the Inquirer if there was impropriety in Garcia’s being named to the Comelec considering his past work with candidates running in the May presidential election, the Aksyon Demokratiko standard-bearer cited the new commissioner’s track record and credentials.

“No, Attorney George is very professional. He’s even a professor of law. He’s a dean. He teaches, and that’s right in his wheelhouse,” the mayor said in a doorstop interview at the Tarlac provincial capitol, where he paid a courtesy call on Tarlac Gov. Susan Yap.

“I think we’ll be in good hands. The country’s elections will be in a safe place, [with] George being part of this system,” he said

Domagoso acknowledged that Garcia worked with Marcos Jr. in the latter’s defeated electoral protest against Robredo, also now a presidential candidate.

He said Garcia serving as his lawyer was official and aboveboard, and added: “I’m happy for Attorney George because election law is truly his specialty. So I think that position is a good fit for him.”

Domagoso journeyed into the heart of Aquino country on Monday, seeking to convert Robredo and Liberal Party-led forces with the promise of a different kind of politics and governance. He was cheered by a large crowd. (See related story on Page A8.)

Brillantes’ example

The new Comelec officials will decide when they want to assume office, according to the poll body’s spokesperson, James Jimenez.

On the possible conflict of interest on Garcia’s part, Jimenez cited the appointment of another prominent election lawyer, Sixto Brillantes, by then President Benigno Aquino III.

“Sixto Brillantes was a practicing election lawyer when he was appointed as [Comelec] chairman no less. So ultimately, it will really depend on the appointee and how the appointees comport themselves once they’re in office,” Jimenez said, adding:

“If it happens that there is a possible conflict of interest, then certainly they will deal with that appropriately. It’s not new in the Comelec that some commissioners would inhibit in certain cases. Ultimately what really matters is the expertise that our appointees bring to the table.”

In the electoral protest against Robredo, Garcia led Marcos Jr.’s camp in collating the affidavits of witnesses of alleged incidents of cheating, as well as details on the malfunctioning of a number of canvassing and consolidation system servers and vote-counting machines.

Garcia also lawyered for Sen. Grace Poe, a 2016 presidential contender whose citizenship and residency qualifications the Supreme Court affirmed after the Comelec canceled her candidacy.

In 2011, Garcia faced a tax evasion complaint filed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue on the basis of a tip from a confidential informant. The lawyer allegedly admitted during a Makati court hearing that he bought a P53-million condominium unit in 2010, despite reporting a gross income of only P1,380,500 for that year.

The Department of Justice junked the complaint in 2015, citing Garcia’s financial statements showing that he took out loans to pay for the unit. The dismissal was affirmed by the Court of Tax Appeals two years later.

—Reports from Leila B. Salaverria and Dona Z. Pazzibugan in Manila, Nestor Corrales in Bulacan, DJ Yap in Tarlac City, and Taher Solaiman in Kidapawan City, with Inquirer Research INQ

Sources: Inquirer Archives, ncmf.gov.ph

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