The powerful Commission on Appointments (CA) has confirmed the ad interim appointments of two commissioners—one from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and another from the Commission on Audit (COA).
No member of the CA objected when two separate motions to confirm the appointments of Comelec Commissioner Sheriff Abas and COA Commissioner Isabel Dasalla-Agito were presented in the plenary on Wednesday.
Abas’ term will expire on February 2, 2022 while Agito’s term will expire on February 2, 2018.
The plenary session of the CA was presided over by Senate President Franklin Drilon.
But before getting the approval in the plenary, Abas had to answer questions from members of the CA’s committee on constitutional commissions and offices about the controversial change in the script of the Comelec’s transparency server on election day.
The elections commissioner reiterated that the poll body did not authorize Smartmatic project director Marlon Garcia to change the script in the system around 7:30 p.m. on May 9, supposedly to correct the question mark that appeared in the names of candidates with letter “ñ.”
He also reiterated Garcia’s claim that the alteration was just “cosmetic” and did not affect the results of the elections.
READ: Comelec says script tweak was minor, did not affect results
Asked who gave Garcia the authority to change the script, Abas said: “As far as the en banc is concerned, there is none. Again, this is without prejudice to the investigation being conducted by our office.”
In fact, Abas said, he was only informed about it two days after the change was made in the system.
Elections Commissioner Christian Robert Lim, who attended Abas’ confirmation hearing, was also asked by Senatro Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara about his view on the change in the system.
“What is your opinion regarding the change made in the hash code, is it innocuous, is it innocent?” Angara asked.
“Unnecessary but cosmetic,” Lim answered. RAM
READ: Comelec says ‘cosmetic’ change in script unnecessary