New Comelec exec Neri urged to resign over extortion allegation

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MANILA - Newly appointed Commission on Elections commissioner Aimee Torrefranca-Neri must resign due to an extortion allegation, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said Monday.

• New Comelec appointees in limbo unless Duterte calls special session of Congress

Neri allegedly asked for P10 million from a suspected druglord for his case to be "favorably acted upon," Drilon said.

"Out of the P10 million, the commissioner returned P7 million but kept the P3 million. This is the public statement of the lawyer of the alleged druglord, Atty. (Ferdinand) Topacio who filed it. He said there was a delivery of P10 million," Drilon told ANC's Headstart.

"Therefore, this episode casts a serious doubt on the integrity and capability of Commissioner Aimee Neri to discharge her functions as Comelec commissioner. Therefore, I think, in fairness to the Filipino people, the President, she should just resign."

Neri will face background checks from the Commission on Appointments, Sen. Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III said.

"Iko-confront ka n'yan pagdating sa appointment process," he said. "Basta, there will be a time na dadaan sya sa Commission on Appointments. And we will have her background checked."

(She will be confronted during the appointment process. She will have to go through the Commission on Appointments.)

Neri was an undersecretary at the Department of Social Welfare and Development before she was appointed to the poll body on March 8.

Before DSWD, Neri served at the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Immigration.

According to Topacio, his client, convicted drug lord Herbert Colanggo, gave Neri P10 million to fix a robbery case before the Supreme Court.

Neri denied the allegation.

Last year, she accused Colanggo's daughter of extorting P3 million from her.

The 18th Congress has two weeks left to hold sessions from May 23 to June 4 when it is scheduled to adjourn sine die. The members of the 19th Congress will assume their posts on June 30.

If the CA fails to confirm the new appointee before June 4, President Rodrigo Duterte can reappoint her ad interim and the next Congress will decide whether to confirm or reject them, according to former Comelec Commissioner Luie Tito Guia.

-- With a report from Sherrie Ann Torres, ABS-CBN News