COMELEC issues “failure of leadership” under Chairman Bautista

Commission on Elections Chief Andres Bautista  by Rita Salonga via RH News

                              

Manila, Philippines - Commission on Elections Chairman Andres Bautista has yet to comment on the memorandum of the En Banc, stating that there is “failure of leadership” under his administration.

According to COMELEC Commissioner Christian Robert Lim, the six Commissioners criticizing Bautista have no intention of asking the Chairman to resign from his post.

Lim added that Bautista just needs to improve his leadership on the poll body.

The Commissioner added that between 16 to 17 issues are included in the said memo, emphasizing Bautista’s failure of leadership.

Some of these issues include the lack of coordination between Bautista and the Commissioners regarding the issue on mall voting.

Prior to this, the Robinson’s Mall is charging the COMELEC more than Php1 million because of the halted mall voting.

Lim said that the COMELEC should not be the one paying the said amount because the poll body will be questioned by the Commission on Audit.

It is clear that once a transaction goes beyond Php500,000, it has to go through a public bidding.
With the issue on mall voting, Bautista signed the agreement without showing the Commissioners the copy of the Memorandum of Agreement.

Aside from mall voting, Bautista allegedly also failed to pay the teachers who served as Board of Election Inspectors, their honorarium.

The law states that if the BEI were not paid 15 days after the election, this may be consider as an election offense.