Comelec execs, personnel express support for Chair Bautista

Comelec employees show their support for Chairman Andres Bautista who is facing accusations of amassing ill-gotten wealth following the expose of his wife Patricia. INQUIRER PHOTO / Grig C. Montegrande

Some 200 officials and employees of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) showed their support to beleaguered Chairman Andres Bautista by accompanying him in a Mass at the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros Thursday.

Most of them clad in white shirts, some of them carried placards bearing messages of support for Bautista, who is now facing accusations of ill-gotten wealth from his estrange wife, Patricia.

READ: Wife says Comelec chief has unexplained wealth

“We support Chair Andy,” “Our prayers are with you Chairman Andy, be strong for your family and Comelec,” read some of the placards.

Comelec Commissioner Art Lim was also among those who attended the 12 noon Mass.

“I was surprised that he went to the mass, considering that he was not a Catholic,” Bautista told reporters later when asked to comment about the support given to him by poll officials and employees.

During the mass, Manila Cathedral parish priest, Fr. Reggie Malicdem, acknowledged the presence of the Comelec personnel.

While he did not mention the name of Bautista, he said that like St. Lawrence in the Gospel, who underwent many persecutions and ended in martyrdom, “we, too who are facing sufferings, persecutions of different kinds, forms in our lives.”

“May you find consolation in the power of prayers and the promise of God that there is hope. There is new life, if we put our trust in Him,” Malicdem added. JPV