MANILA - Seven individuals are in Malacanan's shortlist for the 2 vacancies for commissioners in the Commission on Elections, the poll body's chairman said Friday.

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes declined to name names but said he personally knows 4 of the shortlisted candidates, which includes a Comelec insider.

He said he was consulted in the selection of the new commissioners though he does not sit in the screening committee.

The 2 vacancies were created by the February 2 retirement of Rene Sarmiento and Armando Velasco who completed their 7-year, non-renewable terms of office.

Brillantes said the vacancies have impeded the resolution of pending cases before the poll body.

Two weeks ago, former ambassador Macabangkit Lanto and election lawyer Bernadette Sardillo declined their nominations for Comelec commissioner.

Lanto was discovered to have been ousted by the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal as congressman as a beneficiary of electoral fraud.

Sardillo cited family reasons in declining her nomination. Had she accepted it, she would have had to work with Commissioner Grace Padaca, whose ouster she once sought when she filed an electoral protest against Padaca's victory as Isabela governor.

Sardillo is the election lawyer of Padaca's rival Bojie Dy.