MANILA - Newly appointed Commission on Elections (Comelec) chair Andres Bautista said the poll body has yet to determine the course of action to take for the 2016 polls, but he is sure that two scenarios are definitely out of the picture: having manual elections and not having any polls at all.
During a short press briefing at the Diamond Hotel, Bautista said they are pushing through with the parallel bidding for the refurbishment of the old Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines as well as for the procurement of 100,000 new machines.
The new chairman admitted he is still in a transition period, having been appointed only a week ago, but the former PCGG chair said he is doing his best as the elections are less than a year away.
Addressing the Comelec employees during his first flag ceremony Monday, Bautista congratulated his men for the successful recall elections in Palawan, saying that if last week's polls was an indication of what will happen in 2016, then the elections would be very successful indeed.
He urged his employees to work under his EAT principle: Effective Accountable and Transparent.
New commissioners Rowena Guanzon and Sheriff Abbas were not in attendance today. Bautista reiterated that he is not bothered by the fact that the new commissioner Abbas is related to MILF spokesman Mohagher Iqbal.
In the end, he said, the commissioner will be judged by his performance as a commissioner and not by his relatives.
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