2 poll employees charged with grave misconduct

MANILA -- For being involved in the bribe attempts concerning the petition for accreditation of Alab ng Mamamahayag (Alam), the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has decided to file grave misconduct charges against its two personnel.

In his Twitter account, Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said the en banc has decided to adopt the recommendation by the commission's Personnel Department on the accusations against Enrique "Eric" de Jesus and Rogelio "JR" Raneses.

"We unanimously resolved to charge with Grave Misconduct two of our utility workers involved in Alam party-list’s bribery allegations," wrote Brillantes on his Twitter account, @ChairBrillantes.

He said the Personnel Department had earlier conducted a fact-finding probe on the claims of Alam.

And with the administrative charges already filed, the poll chief said they have also decided to suspend Raneses and de Jesus for two months.

"We will preventively suspend the said two employees for 60 days pending formal investigation," said Brillantes.

The filing of the case, he noted, will result to the conduct of a formal investigation by the Law Department.

Last September, Alam claimed, through the motion for reconsideration (MR) it filed with the commission en banc, that they were approached by Comelec "officials" asking for P3 million in exchange for their accreditation.

Alam, which is composed of members of the media, said in its petition that it has reasons to believe that its refusal to give a P3 million "budget" was instrumental in its being denied of the accreditation for the 2013 polls by the Comelec Second Division.

On Tuesday, the Comelec en banc ruled to affirm the decision of the Second Division to deny accreditation to the party. (HDT/Sunnex)