Kiko Pangilinan blasts Comelec for folder fiasco; Call on resignation of exec director

April 7, 2010

Press Release
April 7, 2010

Liberal Party spokesperson Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan today says the COMELEC cannot afford to have lapses in judgment “this late and crucial part in the ballgame.”

“As part of the Congressional Oversight Committee on Automated Elections in the Senate, the COMELEC’s handling of the country’s first ever automated election leaves a lot to be desired based on what we’ve seen and heard. The last thing the Commission needs is to be embroiled in a graft and corruption controversy.”

Pangilinan calls for the resignation of COMELEC executive director Jose Tolentino for his continued involvement in different electoral anomalies.

“There was that puzzling refusal to purge ‘zombie’ registrants, his dubious involvement in the scandalous Mega-Pacific consortium, and his name figures prominently in this recent fiasco regarding these P700M folders. It’s a wonder why he’s still there. Too much is at stake for our country to entrust its hope for a better future in inept leadership within the COMELEC. This is precisely the kind of corruption that we’d like to put an end to after the elections. Let’s start now. Tolentino should resign. Our people deserve better.”