Padaca set to take office Monday

Ex-Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca

MANILA, Philippines—Newly appointed Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner Grace Padaca is expected to take office Monday, Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said.

Brillantes told reporters in an ambush interview Friday that he talked with Padaca over the phone on when she would assume her post.

“I asked why she hasn’t come to the office yet and she asked if it was okay that she come Monday,” Brillantes said.

He urged her to come and attend the flag-raising ceremony but she said she might not make it that early.

“I said Monday was okay since it’s already the weekend anyway,” Brillantes said.

Padaca, a former governor of Isabela province, has recently been appointed by President Benigno Aquino III to the Comelec post.

Padaca’s appointment has been criticized by many because of the P70,000 bail posted by Aquino for her graft case. They alleged she will have a debt of gratitude and bias for Aquino.

“We are saddened that newly-appointed Comelec Commissioner Grace Padaca failed her first test of independence when she posted her bail before the Sandiganbayan last Thursday accompanied by Liberal Party president on leave and Interior Secretary Mar Roxas,” said United Nationalist Alliance Secretary General Toby Tiangco in a statement Friday.

“Her subsequent statement extolling the personal qualities of Interior Secretary Roxas sounded like a campaign pitch. It betrays the strong political link between Commissioner Padaca and Roxas’ LP, where she was a ranking leader prior to her appointment,” Tiangco added.