The Commission on Appointments (CA) on Wednesday confirmed the appointments of George Erwin Garcia and Karlo Alexei Bendigo Nograles as chairmen of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and Civil Service Commission (CSC), respectively.
Garcia was initially appointed by former President Rodrigo Duterte as Comelec commissioner in 2022.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. then appointed him as Comelec chairman.
He was a former election lawyer of President Marcos in his election protest against former Vice President Leni Robredo in the 2016 vice presidential election.
The CA Committee on Constitutional Commissions and Offices chaired by Senator Cynthia Villar also favored Nograles’ designation as CSC chief.
Nograles was appointed by then President Duterte. He was also designated by President Marcos to the same post.
With the confirmation, Garcia will serve as Comelec chairman and Nograles as CSC chairman until Feb. 2, 2029.
Villar described Nograles as a versatile public servant having functioned as the chairman of the Cabinet Assistance System, head of the Cabinet Cluster Secretariat, and chairman of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Zero Hunger.
“As a lawyer, he is best qualified to chair the Civil Service Commission. His legal and human resource skills are key in reviewing policies of the CSC to ensure a responsive and transformational civil service,” Villar said in her sponsorship speech.
“His extensive experience in public service, especially during our country’s most challenging battle against COVID-19, showed and proved his fitness and competence to be at the helm of the central personnel agency of the Philippine government. He is sure to inject his brand of visionary and strategic leadership to help the CSC fulfill its constitutional mandate,” she added.
Senator Grace Poe, a former client of Garcia in an election case, described him as probably one of the most famous leading men in oral arguments before the Comelec, electoral tribunals, and even the Supreme Court.
“It’s not unusual to hear of his involvement in high-profile and controversial election cases, but he accepts these not for the recognition, but simply because it is his calling,” she said. “Blessed with a brilliant legal mind, he has devoted himself to upholding the integrity of our electoral system, and pushing for necessary advancements in our jurisprudence.”
Garcia, before his confirmation, said the Comelec should lease new vote-counting machines for the 2025 polls to prevent incidents of malfunctioning VCMs.
He said the 90,000 VCMs in Comelec warehouses were no longer highly functional.
“We don’t need to buy since technology changes every six months. The most effective way to address this is to lease VCMs. You won’t need a warehouse for maintenance, and you can be sure that the machines that will be leased to you are brand new,” he said in Filipino.
