Brillantes: Go ahead, impeach me

Bring it on.

Daring his critics to have him impeached, Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. on Wednesday dismissed the charges filed against him before the Ombudsman by an election watchdog group.

Brillantes dared the Automated Election System (AES) Watch to instead file an impeachment complaint against him in Congress, saying that the case that the group filed against him before the Ombudsman was just a publicity stunt.

“They have nothing else to do… They are calling attention to themselves because the elections are over and no one’s paying attention to them,” he said in an interview.

“It would be better if they convert this to an impeachment [complaint] so that I would still be famous,” he added with a laugh.

AES Watch on Tuesday asked the Ombudsman to investigate Brillantes and two other Comelec commissioners for culpability in connection with the “serious glitches” that they said had marred the recent elections.

It also said that Smartmatic, which provided the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines that were used in the elections, should be made to refund the government at least P3 billion.

Brillantes said he would answer the charges if the Ombudsman would require him to rebut the accusations.

“But if [the Ombudsman] dismisses it, that would be better. But we have to go through the same procedure,” he said.