MANILA -- President Benigno Aquino III has appointed on Thursday lawyers Louie Tito Guia and Al Parreño as new members of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said Guia was a former acting director of the Legal Network for Truthful Elections and has been an International Election Consultant to countries such as Papua New Guinea and Kenya, among others.
Parreño, meanwhile, is currently serving as a board member of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board.
"The President is confident that in assuming their new positions as Commissioners, they will demonstrate integrity, probity, and independence in the conduct of their duties and further strengthen Comelec in fulfilling its constitutional mandate to ensure free, orderly, honest, peaceful, and credible elections," Lacierda said.
Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes on Thursday welcomed the appointments of Guia and Parreño to the poll body but he admitted that he is not familiar with the latter.
Know your Comelec officials
Brillantes said he already knows the credibility of Guia and believes that he is qualified for the job being a fellow election lawyer.
"Si Louie is practically an insider," the poll body chief said, adding that they have worked together in the Comelec Advisory Council.
He said the two lawyers can help in the quasi-judicial function of the Comelec.
Aquino earlier appointed former Lanao del Norte Representative Macabangkit Lanto and election lawyer Bernadette Sardillo to the posts vacated by Armando Velasco and Rene Sarmiento.
Both lawyers, however, declined the posts. (Kathrina Alvarez/HDT/Sunnex)