MANILA, Philippines — Commissioner Aimee Ferolino has been named the acting chair of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Committee on the Ban on Firearms and Safety Concerns (CBFSC), her office said on Wednesday.
Ferolino replaced Commissioner Socorro Inting who resigned as panel chair on Tuesday as a form of protest against the poll body’s amendment to the gun ban exemptions.
READ: Inting quits ‘in protest’ as chair of Comelec gun ban panel
“Commissioner Ferolino immediately took over after the receipt of resignation by Commissioner Inting. Being the Vice-chair, she took over in the past when the chair had travels abroad. Having already presided in the past, she said she is ‘ready and willing to take over,'” Ferolino’s office told INQUIRER.net.
Comelec chair Saidamen Pangarungan on Monday announced that senior government officials, organic agents of the National Bureau of Investigation, and election officers are exempted from the election gun ban.
READ: Comelec says senior gov’t officials exempted from poll gun ban
Pangarungan said that the amendment to Resolution No. 10728 or the gun ban exemption will allow officials to protect themselves as the elections near.
Pangarungan, along with Commissioners Rey Bulay, George Garcia, and Aimee Neri, approved the amended Resolution No. 10728 while Ferolino, Inting, and Commissioner Marlon Casquejo dissented or expressed their reservations.
“The bestowal on the Chairman of the Commission on the power to grant gun ban exemptions and place Election Areas of Concern under Comelec Control based on the vague and arbitrary phrase of ‘meritorious and urgent cases’ essentially rendered futile or pointless the functions of the CBFSC,” Inting, who chaired the panel since February, said in a memorandum.
During Wednesday’s en banc meeting, Pangarungan decided to defer the discussion on Inting’s resignation for one week, said Ferolino’s office.
The election gun ban is in effect from January 9 to June 8.
READ: Gun ban on as election period begins