Comelec exec wants to be commissioner

Former Comelec law department chief Ferdinand Rafanan. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—A Commission on Elections (Comelec) official wants to be appointed Comelec commissioner, citing his “transparent and uncorrupted” leadership in the committee responsible for bidding out contracts during the 2010 automated elections.

In a letter to President Benigno Aquino III, Comelec planning department head Ferdinand Rafanan said he was offering his services to help the administration fight corruption in the government and cheating in the elections.

“You want genuine reforms in Comelec, Mr. President; so I know I qualify under your transformational presidency and the pragmatic chairmanship of Sixto Brillantes Jr.,” said Rafanan, also a lawyer, who has been with the poll body for 15 years.

In a press conference, the Comelec Employees Union, which has been lobbying for an insider to be appointed to the posts vacated by Commissioners Rene Sarmiento and Armando Velasco, who both retired on Feb. 2, on Friday endorsed Rafanan’s appointment.

The union earlier endorsed lawyer Alexander Pilotin as election commissioner. Pilotin is the current regional election attorney of Comelec Region II and the election officer of Santiago City, Isabela.

In his letter to the President, Rafanan said that since he joined the Comelec in February 1998, he had been working hard for personnel reforms, voters’ education and the prosecution of election anomalies, including the scuttled P690-million ballot secrecy folder project in 2010.

He said that as a “transparent and uncorrupted” chair of the Comelec’s special bids and awards committee in 2009, the commission was able to save P4.1 billion or 36 percent of the budget for the 2010 automated elections.

“Then serving as chairman of the regular bids and awards committee in 2010, we again saved about P292 million or 38 percent of the budget for the election paraphernalia alone in the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections,” added Rafanan.

“I believe that under your excellency’s leadership and bold move to eradicate graft and corruption, I can do more,” he said.

In an interview with reporters yesterday, Rafanan said one of the reforms he would institute, if appointed as commissioner, would be the eradication of vote-buying. “It is the No. 1 illness and a long-lasting problem during elections. Vote-buying is a very urgent issue,” said Rafanan.

If given the chance, he would propose the creation of antivote-buying task force in all regions, he said.