By Aries Rufo
abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak

Is the jockeying too intense in Malacanang that President Arroyo cannot make up her mind on who to appoint to the two vacant slots in the Commission on Elections?

A month after a Palace search committee submitted a shortlist of nominees to the Comelec and three months after Commissioners Resurreccion Borra and Florentino Tuason Jr. retired, the President has yet to appoint their replacements.

Senate majority leader Francis Pangilinan on Tuesday called on the President to fill up the vacancies to make the supposed seven-man poll body "fully functional."

Two poll commissioners echo Pangilinan’s call, saying it will ease the heavy work load they are faced with right now.

Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer, in a phone interview, said the Comelec is "burdened" with election protests, resulting in delays in some of the cases.

"Right now, there is a deluge of barangay cases. It is not an insurmountable challenge but we’re overworked," Ferrer said.

Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, in a separate phone interview, said that aside from barangay protest cases, the Comelec is overwhelmed by protest cases from the Sangguniang Kabataan election.

"Every week, we raffle off cases to the two divisions," he said.

Preparing for ARMM elections

On top of their quasi-judicial function, the Comelec is occupied with preparations for the conduct of elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in August.

Related Stories
• ‘All systems go’ for ARMM automated elections
• Panel Submits Comelec Shortlist to Palace
• Palace keeps Zuno hanging on Comelec appointment

Meanwhile, the Comelec said it will award this week the supply contract for the automation of the ARMM elections.

Ferrer and Sarmiento said success or failure of poll automation in the ARMM would determine if the country can have a nationwide poll automation for the 2010 presidential race.

The Comelec is spending P857 million to automate the elections in ARMM.

Garci, Abalos

A source at the Palace search committee earlier told abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak that almost 80 people applied and were screened for the vacancies in the Comelec. The list was trimmed down to 12 before it was submitted to the President.

Incumbent commissioners have been tipped off that Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuno is supposed to fill up one of the vacant slots before Congress resumed its session following the Holy Week break. The Palace however has not made up its mind.

A Comelec source surmises that one possible reason for the delay in the appointment of the two replacements is the lobbying in Malacanang by vested-interest groups. "They want their own men to be appointed and maybe that’s causing the delay."

The posts in Comelec have been among the most-coveted jobs in government and most controversy-laden as well.

Previous appointments in the Comelec chair and the commissioners’ positions have been criticized for lack of transparency. The appointment of former Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, who has been exposed as a poll operator in the Hello Garci wiretap scandal, highlighted the flaws in the process of appointment in Comelec.

Another example was when former chair Benjamin Abalos, who was appointed because of his closeness to First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, resigned because he was dragged into the bribe-tainted $329 million broadband project.