The Comelec’s new leader

THE COMMISSION on Elections’ new chair, Andres Bautista, is assuming leadership of the poll body under pleasant circumstances.

Two citizen groups actively engaged in the campaign for clean and honest elections—the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting and the Legal Network for Truthful Elections—have expressed approval of his appointment. And so have the Makati Business Club, Management Association of the Philippines, European Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines and several civic organizations.

With a full complement of commissioners in place, the Comelec can now effectively address the issues relating to the refurbishing of the 81,000 precinct count optical scan machines used in the 2010 elections.

Earlier, the Supreme Court invalidated the P268-million contract into which Bautista’s predecessor, Sixto Brillantes Jr., entered hours before his term of office ended.

Bautista is taking the lead in supervising the 2016 elections without political or moral baggage.

He has not held any local or national elective office. Although he had served the government in various capacities—the latest as head of the Presidential Commission on Good Government—he is not aligned or identified with any political party.

Neither has he served as legal counsel in election cases filed in the Comelec or the regular courts. He is, therefore, not beholden to or owes any politician any favor on account of professional relationship.

In contrast, Brillantes, an election lawyer prior to his appointment as Comelec chair, was hounded by questions of bias or partiality in his decisions on cases that involved his former clients.

Bautista would be spared that trouble. No ghosts from previous professional ties will haunt or bother him in the resolution of election cases.

With his good reputation and excellent professional credentials, he is expected by the public to provide effective leadership to the poll body.

As the constitutional office tasked with supervising Philippine elections, the Comelec is in a class of its own. Practically every aspect of the electoral process—voter registration, filing of certificates of candidacy, voting, canvassing of votes, tabulation of results, proclamation of winners and handling of protests—has been reviewed and passed upon by the Supreme Court.

Since elections are held every three years, electoral protests take time to resolve, and petitions for recall elections have become part of the political landscape, the Comelec is often in the limelight.

And because election to public office translates to political influence and access to public funds, Comelec officials are prone to political pressure from all sides of the political spectrum.

This early, Bautista should brace himself for intense public scrutiny in the run-up to the 2016 elections. He can kiss his privacy goodbye.

Although media-savvy, he should be careful with his public pronouncements lest these are misinterpreted or given spins that may adversely affect the integrity of the Comelec’s handling of the coming elections.

For now, the biggest challenge to Bautista is ensuring that the 2016 polls will remain automated. There can be no return to manual elections.

Critics and skeptics aside, the results of the 2010 elections have shown that automated voting is the best and fastest way to determine the people’s electoral choices. It will be a big step backward to restore the manipulation-prone process of manual voting.

Despite the invalidation of the contract with Smartmatic-TIM, there is still time for the Comelec to look for a competent service provider and, if necessary, acquire additional counting machines in accordance with existing rules.

It’s true that our procurement laws are strict and there is little room for discretion in the bidding process and award of contracts. But, as the saying goes, there are several ways of skinning a cat. Solutions to sticky legal problems require creativity or thinking out of the box, so to speak.

Bautista is no stranger to this approach. His years of experience as a corporate lawyer have provided him with the expertise to find ways and means to surmount legal obstacles or mitigate their adverse effects in the preparation of commercial contracts.

Sometimes, gray areas in the law provide avenues or opportunities to come up with the right fix for problematic situations.

Besides, there are mechanisms in existing permissible project schemes—i.e., build-operate-transfer, build-transfer-operate and public-private partnerships—that the Comelec can adopt or tweak to accomplish its objective of electronic voting.

The law authorizing the Comelec to use an automated election system (Republic Act No. 9369) does not specify particular equipment for this purpose.

All it requires, subject to compliance with specific vetting processes, is that these facilities will result in transparent, credible, fair and accurate elections.

Neither does the law require that the contract to supply and operate the electronic facilities be awarded to only one company. The Comelec is free to enter into a contract with as many service or product providers it thinks it needs to enable it to effectively perform its mandate in the 2016 and future elections.

Bautista’s transition from the corporate world to government service may be likened to jumping from the frying pan to the fire. He will need all the skills he gained through the years to meet the challenges of his new mandate—as well as all the luck.

Raul J. Palabrica (rpalabrica@inquirer.com.ph) writes a weekly column in the Business section of the Inquirer.