Comelec exec fails to get CA’s nod anew

Comelec Commissioner Aimee Ferolino-Ampoloquio faces the Commission on Appointments. Screengrab from the Senate livestream.

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte’s most recent appointee to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday failed anew to get the approval of the Commission on Appointments (CA) after facing standard questioning by some senators.

Comelec Commissioner Aimee Ferolino-Ampoloquio was grilled by Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon over the low number of registrants, barely six months before the September 30 deadline given to voters to register for the 2022 elections.

Drilon lamented how the nominee kept on changing her answers and giving inaccurate responses to their questions.

“I’m already fed up. Please don’t keep on passing the blame to the voters. You must do something to encourage them to register and provide them the facilities that they will be able to register. Don’t keep on blaming the registrants that we have a low registration because it’s their fault. I don’t accept that, Madam chair,” the minority leader said.

“And as I said, I was willing to vote for this nominee but at the rate she’s answering questions and the  being evasive about it, I don’t know, I may rethink that,” Drilon added.

It was also Drilon who moved in December last year to suspend the nominee’s confirmation hearing pending submission of documents pertaining to her husband’s rice and cornmeal family business.

But at Wednesday’s hearing, the committee informed its members that the nominee had already complied with the requested documents.

Drilon said he was satisfied with the submission and manifested that would not raise objection to Ferolino-Ampoloquio’s appointment.

He changed his tone, however, when he started asking the nominee about voters registration.

Due to lack of time, the committee had to suspend the deliberations and just schedule another hearing to continue discussing the nominee’s qualifications.

Duterte nominated Ferolino-Ampoloquio, formerly the provincial election supervisor of Davao del Norte, as Comelec commissioner last November.

EDV