Sotto to new Comelec officials: Be careful in making decisions

BAY, Laguna —Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Saturday warned the three newly appointed Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioners to make "careful" decisions because their appointments might be compromised.

Sotto's remark came after the Comelec special division’s ruling declaring the faction of Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi as the "legitimate" PDP-Laban party.

“I read the report that the Comelec decided that PDP-Laban is the faction of Secretary Cusi.  And so, I said in my tweet na malamang, my idol, one of idols, si late Senator Aquilino 'Nene' Pimentel, Jr. must be turning in his grave because he -- together with late Senator Benigno 'Ninoy' Aquino, and late Lorenzo Tañada -- founded the PDP-Laban,” Sotto said in a press conference.

Sotto, a former PDP-Laban member, said that the membership process in the party is tedious. He asked if the members of the faction which were declared as the legitimate PDP-Laban group went through the same process.

“If the people that they declare as the original, official PDP-Laban were only suddenly members of the PDP-Laban in the 2016 elections...Did  they undergo that? Tinanong ba ng Comelec kung nag-undergo lahat yung mga yun? I doubt it because sabi sa ‘kin ng mga original members ng PDP-Laban, hindi. So that was my sentiment,” Sotto said.

“I was sympathizing with the original members of the PDP-Laban, na kung ganyan dumiskarte yung mga ika nga’y commissioners tiyak na makukuwestyon ito. Kasi gusto nila magpa-submit sa 25 at saka sa June 1, Commission on Appointments. If they are not approved, [maba-]bypass sila,” Sotto, the chairman of the Commission on Appointments (CA), said.

(I was sympathizing with the original members of the PDP-Laban. If the commissioners are keeping things that way, then for sure they will be questioned because they want to submit their appointments to the Commission on Appointments on the 25th and on June 1. If their appointments are not confirmed, they will be bypassed.)

The Senate president said that if the three commissioners will be bypassed, their tenure will end by June 30 or at the end of the term of President Rodrigo Duterte.

“Sa Commission on Appointments, if ma-bypass sila, ‘di na sila commissioner by June 30. Di ba, iba na ang presidente? Tama ‘yung sabi ni Senator [Panfilo] Lacson, play it straight, play it honest. Kasi mga dalawa o tatlo sila e, lalo na yung chairman,” he said.

(In the CA, if they are bypassed, they will no longer sit as commissioners by June 30. By then, there will be a new president. There are two or three who will face the CA, including the chairman.)

Comelec officials who are yet to face the CA are Comelec Chairman Saidamen Pangarungan, Commissioners Aimee Torrefranca-Neri and George Garcia.

“Kaya dapat nag-iingat sa mga desisyon na ginagawa na nakaka-apekto sa mga partido na since time immemorial ay nandiyan na. I will never lose heart as far as PDP-Laban is concerned because I was an original member of the Party,” Sotto said.

(That’s why they need to be careful when deciding on matters that can affect a party, whose members are already there since time immemorial. I will never lose heart as far as PDP-Laban is concerned because I was an original member of the Party.)

Apart from the issue of PDP-Laban, Sotto said they will also raise the issues about transparency servers, among others.

In a resolution released Friday, the Comelec Special Second Division resolved to acknowledge the faction of Cusi as the legitimate PDP-Laban party.

Two factions of the PDP-Laban had eyed for recognition before the Comelec — the one led by Cusi and the other by Senators Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III, and Manny Pacquiao.

The Cusi faction previously filed a petition before the Comelec declaring Pacquiao and Pimentel as “illegal representatives of the ruling party.”

Pimentel, in response, had called on the poll body to dismiss the said petition, calling the other faction as “usurpers."

Reacting to the Comelec division's decision, Pimentel, a party stalwart, said they will file a motion for reconsideration to appeal the decision. He noted that the decision is “not immediately executory.”

Meanwhile, Senator Panfilo Lacson, who is also a member of the CA, said the poll body should do their duties objectively.

“They should do their job, period. Kung gagawin lang nila yung trabaho nila nang maayos at saka very objectively,” Lacson said in the same press conference.

Lacson and Sotto are running for president and vice president, respectively, in the upcoming May 9 elections. —LBG, GMA News