REELING from criticism of his supposed “failure of leadership” at the Commission on Elections, Chairman Andres Bautista asked Comelec employees on Monday for a “fresh start” in the agency riled by the controversy between him and his fellow commissioners.
“Today, we have a new President. I hope we can also have a fresh start here in Comelec. As I said, we should consider first the welfare of this institution, what can we do for the interest of Comelec,” Bautista said before some poll employees outside the Comelec building in Intramuros, Manila.
“I have been here for one year already and you can continue to expect professionalism from me. That is very important. We should do the duty that were mandated on us to support our commission and our employees,” Bautista stressed.
“In the end, the Comelec is not the chairman, not the en banc. The Comelec is made up of all of you. That’s why you need to take care of your job, your duties, and you should be treated right with respect and courtesy to each other,” Bautista said.
Some employees said Bautista was taking a dig at an unnamed commissioner who supposedly demanded that employees rise when she enters the room and asked for an elevator for the exclusive use of commissioners.
Bautista also needled his fellow commissioners for threatening to boycott the barangay elections set for October.
But when told about Bautista’s remarks, Commissioner Luie Guia clarified that he and Commisioners Christian Robert Lim and Rowena Guanzon never said they will boycott the barangay elections and they only asked that they be excused from operational aspects because of their work load.
“It is our job to run the elections. It is our job to run the barangay elections. Especially since barangay elections is one of the more important elections because we are talking here of the actual government service to the people such as garbage collection, peace and order, community relations,” Guia said.
Guia said they only asked not to be named chairmen of committees involved in the preparation.
“Personally, I want to concentrate first [on petitions pending before the Comelec]. But of course, if I get an assignment, I won’t turn it down. We cannot refuse to work (for the barangay elections),” Guia explained.
Bautista said he welcomes Guia’s clarification, but insisted that he will not be forcing anyone to actively participate in running the elections if they don’t want to.
“Whoever wants to help, we will accept their help. But if they don’t want to, then it’s also fine by us. We can handle the job by ourselves,” Bautista firmly said.
