Inting designated as acting Comelec chairperson anew, says Comelec exec

Commissioner Socorro Inting has been designated anew as the Commission on Elections acting chairperson, Comelec Education and Information Director Frances Arabe said in a Viber message Wednesday.

According to Arabe, Inting's designation was effective beginning June 2.

The Comelec resolution on the matter has yet to be provided to the media as of posting time.

Inting will serve as the acting chairperson of the Comelec until President-elect Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. names the new poll chief.

The Comelec en banc made the decision a week after the Commission on Appointments (CA) bypassed the ad interim appointments of Comelec Chairman Saidamen Pangarungan and two other poll commissioners namely, George Erwin Garcia and Aimee Torrefrance Neri.

The three Comelec commissioners were all appointees of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte.

During the deliberations of their appointments, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri raised a suggestion to give Marcos a chance to pick his own appointees for the affected constitutional bodies.

Since their appointments are only bypassed and not rejected by the CA, Pangarungan, Garcia, and Torrefrance-Neri could still be appointed to the Comelec.

Inting, the most senior Comelec commissioner, was first designated as the acting chairperson of the poll body in February following the retirement of  Comelec chairman Sheriff Abas. — RSJ, GMA News