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By Mikha Flores, VERA Files | Tinig Ng Botante – 19 hours ago


A Supreme Court ruling suspending the implementation of new airtime limits for candidates is the latest in a series of setbacks for the Commission on Elections, prompting Chairman Sixto Brillantes to consider resigning less than a month to go before the mid-term elections.

He is taking time off for a day or two in order to think things over before speaking to President Benigno Aquino III, he told reporters on Tuesday.

This followed the high court’s status quo ante order that practically lifts the airtime limits the poll body has set on television and radio advertisements: an aggregate of 120 minutes for television and 180 minutes for radio for national candidates. In previous elections, the airtime limit was on a per station basis.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday voted 9-6 to issue the order suspending the limits based on a petition filed by media organizations TV5, GMA7, BomboRadyo and senatorial candidate Alan Peter Cayetano.

“Why issue the TRO now? Or the status quo ante now? Hindi namin maintindihan (We don’t understand),” the election chairman said.

“With this series of decisions coming from the Supreme Court…sabi ko para naming lumalabas na sila na ang nagpapatakbo ng election. Akala ko ba kami? (It appears the Court is now the one running the elections. I thought it was supposed to be us),” a highly emotional Brillantes said.

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The latest SC order comes on the heels of a decision on the 2010 case between Homer Saquilayan and Emmanuel Maliksi of Imus, Cavite which reversed the Comelec’s ruling on the issue. A week earlier, the Supreme Court issued a controversial ruling on the party-list system that effectively dismissed the poll body’s basis of its purge of party-lists.

The series of decisions unfavorable to the Comelec prompted Brillantes to ask whether the problem lay with him, or that he may have been very strict in implementing election laws.

“Hindi ko naman gusto ito e. Nagtatrabaho lang ako rito while making the reforms necessary pero kung TRO, TRO lang at tsaka may status quo ante, bakit ko naman pahihirapan ang sarili ko rito? (I did not want this. I’m just doing my job while making the necessary reforms but if all we get are TROs and status quo ante, why will I make my life difficult?),”he declared.

The Supreme Court also dealt the Comelec a setback when it issued a temporary restraining order against its decision ordering the removal of an oversized poster linked to the Reproductive Health Law hanging outside a Bacolod Church.

With less than a month before voting day, Brillantes assured the public that preparations for the May 13 polls will not be affected by whatever decision he makes as most of the work has been delegated to Comelec’s senior staff and are already in the implementation stage.

When asked if he feels his efforts have gone for naught, he said: “Hindi naman. Meron kasi akong mga ambisyon. Meron akong gusto… (Not really but there are things I want to accomplish),” said a teary-eyed Brillantes, who abruptly ended the interview and headed back to his office. -- http://ph.news.yahoo.com/

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