‘Who they?’ greets GMA Comelec picks

CA justice,Malabon judge face ‘baptism of fire’

BY WENDELL VIGILIA

PRESIDENT Arroyo has named Lucenito Tagle and Leonardo Leonida as two new commissioners of the Commission on Elections. Both have served in the judiciary but are relatively unknowns.

Comelec Chairman Jose Melo said he does not personally know Tagle and Lucida but added he and other members would know the two eventually.

Rep. Edno Joson (N. Ecija, Ind.) said, "What distinctions do these appointees have to deserve the posts? What favors have they extended to Gloria. What future favors are expected from them?"

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, in his weekly briefing yesterday, said the President has yet to pick the replacement for Commissioner Romeo Brawner who died of heart attack last month.

Tagle was a former justice of the 15th Division of the Court of Appeals while Leonida, of Marinduque, was acting regional trial court judge in Malabon.

Tagle handled the petition for a writ of amparo against then AFP chief Hermogenes Esperon Jr. and PNP chief Avelino Razon Jr. filed by the family of a soldier involved in the Peninsula siege last November.

The two replaced Commissioners Resurreccion Borra and Florentino Tuazon who retired last February.

The other commissioners aside from chairman Jose Melo are Rene Sarmiento, Nicodemo Ferrer and Moslemen Macarambon.

Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel said Tagle and Leonida "will have to prove their worth by action when they discharge their duties and their credentials when they face the Commission on Appointments."

Pimentel said he does not personally know the two.

He said he expects them to define their work through their independence and integrity.

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano said he is keeping an open mind on the independence of the two new appointees.

"Worth watching is how these new commissioners will do their duties based on what is right and moral and not based on what the appointing power, which is GMA, wants," Cayetano said.

Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri said the new commissioners will have their "baptism of fire" in the August 11 elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

President Arroyo also appointed Josephine Dominguez, an undersecretary for indigenous peoples at the presidential legislative liaison office.

Dominguez is the widow of Mt. Province Rep. Victor Dominguez who died of cardiac arrest last February.

The rest of the new appointments are Ed Pamintuan, chair of the North Luzon Railways Corp.; actress Amalia Fuentes, acting member of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB); Romeo Momo as Public Works undersecretary; Danilo Valero, executive director of the Road Board secretariat of the DPWH; Ruben Ciron, director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, and Angelo Palana as commissioner (representing the employers sector) of the National Labor Relations Commission. –With Dennis Gadil