MANILA -- Commission on Elections Director James Jimenez’s reason for quitting his post at the poll body is deeply personal, Chairman George Garcia said Monday.

• Long-time Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez retires

Documents seen by ABS-CBN News on Saturday showed that the Comelec accepted Jimenez's request to avail of the optional retirement, which will be effective on September 16.

“Masyado pong personal ang rason ni Director James Jimenez, pero siyempre kasama na rin po dyan yung kanyang kalusugan, at dahil po dyan, actually po mga 2 weeks ago pa po siya nag-signify ng intention na mag-early retirement o optional retirement,” Garcia told TeleRadyo.

“At 2 linggo rin pong pinag-isipan ng en banc, hindi muna kaagad namin tinanggap hanggat hindi siya nakakausap,” he said.

(Director Jimenez's reasons for retiring are too personal, but that includes concerns about his health. Actually he told us of his intention to retire 2 weeks ago. The en banc mulled its acceptance for 2 weeks, we didn't want to accept it until we spoke with him.)

Garcia said the former poll body spokesperson’s retirement won’t affect their fact-finding investigation on his role in the controversial deal with Halalan 2022 debate organizer Impact Hub Manila.

The last leg of the presidential and vice presidential town-hall debates – supposed to take place April 23 and 24 – was canceled after the management of venue Sofitel Philippine Plaza said Impact Hub failed to fulfill its payment obligations, amounting to P14 million.

Sofitel said Impact Hub repeatedly issued them bouncing checks.

• Comelec's P15-million payout to Impact Hub 'on hold': exec

Garcia noted that the Comelec’s investigation is not centered on Jimenez.

“Yun po’y nakasentro sa ibat iba pang mga indibidwal at lalong-lalo na po sa proseso ng Commission on Election. Kung sadya bang nagkaproblema, ano ba ang naging problema, ano ang puno’t dulo, ano ang mali sa proseso sa sistema, na dapat baguhin ng Comelec at sadya bang dapat ay may managot, o kaya meron ba talagang konting pagkukulang ang ilang mga indibidwal.”

“So yun pong kay Director James Jimenez siya po ay maaaring isa lamang doon sa mga kasama doon sa subject ng fact-finding investigation,” he explained.

(The probe is centered on different individuals and the Comelec's processes. Was the problem created on purpose? What was the problem, where did it come from? Was there a mistake in the process that the Comelec can change? Must someone be held responsible, or is it the fault of more than one person?)

Garcia said the results of the said probe may be tackled by the commission en banc in its meeting this week.

“Yung patungkol po dyan sa result ng investigation ay maaari naming talakayin sa linggong ito, sa amin pong en banc session sa Miyerkules. So hopefully, magkaroon na kami ng determinasyon o inisyal na pag-uulat tungkol dyan,” he said.

(We may tackle the results of the investigation in our Wednesday en banc meeting. Hopefully, we'll have an initial report about it soon.)

--TeleRadyo, 5 September 2022