A formidable task

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Newly-appointed Commission on Elections Chairman Jose A. R. Melo is faced with the formidable task of restoring the battered and scandal-filled COMELEC, an institution that practically lost all its credibility under the reign of his disgraced predecessor, back to being an institution that the Filipino people can actually trust when it comes to its very critical role in the selection of our nation's leaders.

With just two years to go before the next elections, Melo has the unenviable job of purging the COMELEC of the its infamous field election supervisors and other officials who have been involved in fraudulent practices, led by the notorious Lintang Bedol, whose arrest and prosecution would certainly help the tarnished image of the institution. He also has to take up the cudgels for the modernization of the COMELEC, a task that was started by Benjamin Abalos but unfortunately ended in scandal after no less than the Supreme Court scrapped the P6.6 billion contract for the computerization of the voters registration list for being way beyond the P1 billion allocated by Congress, along with the cancellation of the P1.3 billion contract for poll automation, in which the high court ruled that the COMELEC disregarded its own bidding rules. Aside from these pressing matters that would directly affect the conduct and outcome of the 2010 presidential elections, there is also the matter of getting to the bottom of the “Hello Garci” scandal, another unresolved issue and undoubtedly a major black eye in the history of the COMELEC.

Critics of the Melo Commission, which President Arroyo created in August 2006 to look into allegations of disappearances and extrajudicial executions, in the face of growing international concern, point out that Jose Melo and his team had no teeth and could not effect change. The fact that the full report of that commission has not yet been released to the public bolster those claims. Now that Melo is the head of a constitutional body and can be removed from office only if he resigns or is impeached, he has the power to affect positive change. Let us hope that he lives up to the expectations of the entire country, and not the select few who, until now, have been blatantly using the COMELEC for personal gain.*