'He is indeed a nobody
compared to Zuño, Rodriguez, Saguisag et al.'
Executive Secretary
Eduardo Ermita said it is not true newly appointed election commissioners
Lucenito Tagle and Leonardo Lucida did not undergo scrutiny by a Malacañang
search committee. That's a straightforward denial and we have no reason to
controvert Ermita's claim.
So the next question is where did these two worthies stand in
the evaluation of the search committee? Were they in the top 10 percent,
somewhere in the middle or were they in the bottom of the list?
There was reportedly a short-list prepared by the search
committee. Among the names in the short-list were reportedly those of Chief
State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño, Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriquez, former
Sen. Rene Saguisag, University of the East law dean Amado Valdez, election
lawyer Howard Calleja and Persida Acosta, chief of the Public Attorney's Office.
Lucida said he was not offended when he was tagged as a
nobody following the Palace announcement of his appointment. Why should he be?
He is indeed a nobody compared to Zuño, Rodriguez, Saguisag et al. He must have
been hiding his light under a bushel all these years. It's now time for the
Palace to unveil this gentleman's hidden distinctions to erase the suspicion
that he and Tagle were named to the Comelec on the strength of their connections
to the appointing authority, not on the basis of their qualifications.
The Comelec's reputation was in tatters after Virgilio
Garcillano's Mindanao "special ops" to ensure that Gloria Arroyo would post a
lead of one million posts over Fernando Poe Jr. in the 2004 elections. The body
was further sunk into disrepute by Benjamin Abalos' NBN caper, seen as his way
of collecting his markers on the eve of his retirement.
The appointment of retired Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo
was trumpeted by the Palace as the first step in winning back the Comelec's
credibility. Only men with the highest integrity would hence be named to the
election body, it was promised. Then here come the appointments of Lucida and
Tagle.
The suspicion is that Lucida and Tagle are part of Gloria
Arroyo's insurance that her anointed would win in 2010. She needs a successor
who could protect her from an expected avalanche of graft charges following her
loss of immunity from suits.
That's a plausible reason, and a comforting one in that, at
least, it is based on a rational calculation based on cost (continued loss of
credibility of the Comelec) and benefit (Gloria and her family do not go to
jail).
But what if Gloria named Lucida and Tagle simply to show she
does not care a hoot about what people say and what is demanded of a
constitutional body mandated with ensuring honest elections?
If it's the latter, it's a case of insanity which, it so happens, is
consistent with Gloria's warped sense of what is right or wrong, of what is
legal or illegal, of what is decent or reprehensible.
