Boholano Judge Gabriel Ingles, currently the presiding judge of the Cebu Regional Trial Court Branch 58, is among nominees for Commissioner of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
The Comelec still has no chairman since October last year when former chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. resigned amid the National Broadband Network (NBN) deal controversy for which he was charged with bribery.
The commission will also have two more vacancies next month as two senior commissioners are also ending their 7-year terms of office. They are Commissioners Resureccion Borra and Florentino Tuazon Jr.
Ingles, a native of Tagbilaran City, is a former SVD seminarian and former dean of the College of Law of the University of San Carlos. He is being endorsed by a coalition of groups pushing for electoral reforms together with retired Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo and Carlos Medina of the Legal Network for Truthful Elections.
Aside from his judicial duties, Ingles is head legal counsel of election watchdog Cebu-Citizens' Involvement and Maturation in People's Empowerment and Liberation (C-Cimpel) while teaching law at the University of San Carlos.
Ingles welcomed his nomination as it is also being endorsed by civil society groups.
Ingles said to become Comelec chair or commissioner usually required political backing and the ear of the president, who makes the appointment to the position.
- The Bohol Chronicle
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