Padaca denies blocking Sardillo appointment to poll body

COMMISSIONER Grace Padaca on Tuesday denied talks that she tried to block the appointment of election lawyer Bernadette Sardillo as commissioner of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Reports said Padaca and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima had lobbied against the appointment of Sardillo to the poll body.

Sardillo had once served as counsel for former governor Benjamin Dy, who had sought for the unseating of Padaca back in 2009 as governor of Isabela.

Padaca said that the supposed conversation with President Benigno Aquino III in Malacañang where she allegedly expressed her opposition to the election lawyer's appointment "never happened."

The President announced the appointment Sardillo and former ambassador Macabangkit Lanto as new commissioners of the Comelec while he was visiting Davao City last Thursday.

Both lawyers, however, declined their appointments.

Sardillo said she wants her to remain in the private sector while Lanto was heavily criticized for his involvement in a poll fraud some 20 years ago. The case unseated him as representative of Lanao del Norte in 1994.

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said he did not see any sign that Padaca was against the appointment of Sardillo.

Likewise, he noted that he is not aware of the alleged visit of Padaca and de Lima to Malacañang. (HDT/Sunnex)