Drilon grills Brillantes at confirmation hearing

President Benigno Aquino III’s choice to head the Commission on Elections has yet to hurdle the congressional Commission on Appointments.

If anything, Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes has attracted a flock of new detractors opposing his appointment.

Brillantes was grilled at the commission hearing for nearly three hours on Wednesday on matters ranging from his quarrel with a subordinate and reforms at the Comelec, to his income tax returns and previous lawyering for a political opponent of a senator from Taguig.

In the end, the commission decided to again defer Brillantes’ appointment.

Sen. Franklin Drilon questioned an alleged discrepancy between Brillantes’ income tax returns and statement of assets, liabilities and net worth.

He noted that Brillantes’ taxable income from 2006 to 2010 was only P5.4 million, but his SALN for 2009 reflected P25.5 million, including “investments, deposits, and similar instruments” worth P15.5 million.

“What is the source of the P15.8 million?” Drilon asked.

“The income tax return does not reflect properties. These are income, which means that the balance sheet, indeed, should be taken in relation to assets and liabilities reported,” Brillantes replied.

After the hearing, Drilon clarified that his interrogation of Brillantes had nothing to do with the senator’s being allied with Transportation Secretary Mar Roxas in the Liberal Party.

“I’m just an ordinary member of the Commission on Appointments and I analyzed the submissions. I saw this as a legitimate question to ask and he has to justify where this P15 million came from,” Drilon said.

Roxas reportedly disapproves of Brillantes because the latter allegedly supported Jejomar Binay in the 2004 vice presidential contest. Brillantes was the election lawyer of then Sen. Benigno Aquino III, whose vice presidential running mate was Roxas.

Comelec Director Ferdinand Rafanan took the CA hearing as an opportunity to bring up his case against Brillantes.

Rafanan has been at odds with Brillantes after he was removed from the joint Comelec-Department of Justice committee investigating the alleged cheating in the 2004 and 2007 elections. He was also moved from the Comelec legal department to the relatively obscure planning department.

Rafanan submitted an affidavit setting out seven “grounds” for why Brillantes should not be confirmed. Among the reasons cited was that he had been “repeatedly bullied and compelled to compromise cases.”