Comelec exec hits alumni group’s ‘unnecessary’ appeal for honest polls

Comelec Commissioner Socorro Inting (file photo)

MANILA, Philippines — Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Socorro Inting on Friday called out the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Alumni for Leni over its “unnecessary” call for honest and credible elections this May.

In a statement, Inting noted it is the constitutional mandate of the Comelec to ensure that the elections are free, orderly, honest, peaceful, and credible.

“As Commissioner of our poll body, I am ever conscious of this mandate. My colleagues in the Commission En Banc are likewise cognizant of this constitutional directive,” she pointed out.

“The Appeal of AIM Alumni for Leni calling for Non-Partisanship and for Holding of Orderly, Peaceful, and Credible Elections on May 9, 2022 is therefore unnecessary as it tends to sow distrust on the integrity of the COMELEC,” Inting added.

In its appeal, the AIM Alumni for Leni has asked all agencies involved in administering the elections to be “nonpartisan.”

A copy of the undated appeal was shared by the Comelec to the media on Friday.

The appeal was directed to the Comelec Electoral Boards, Department of Education, Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines, and other deputized agencies supporting the Comelec in staging the elections.

“You are tasked to make voting safe, to ensure that voting is secret, and to protect the will of voters as expressed on the ballot,” the group said.

Inting, however, said that “casting aspersions on the Commission on Elections and its deputized agencies, without sufficient basis, is the last thing we need now, more so that we are already in the homestretch of the campaign.”

“Worse, the Appeal… subtly conditions the minds of Filipinos that the upcoming elections is not credible should Vice President Leni Robredo lose in the presidential race,” she added.

“Lest AIM Alumni for Leni forgets, Leni Robredo was proclaimed as Vice-President in the 2016 Elections through a credible process, spearheaded by no less than your Commission on Elections,” said the poll official.

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