Echoes From
BY JOHNNY DAYANG

No country for old men

In the Philippines, one cannot be old and successful without gaining along the way, friends and enemies from our many-sided political fence.

And for 71-year old, new Commission on Elections (Comelec) chair Sixto Brillantes, Jr., the links he has forged with the rich and the powerful (not necessarily the "clean" and the "righteous") in Philippine society have come to haunt him.

Many of my media friends and colleagues have raised their hackles over Brillantes' appointment, saying that the new Comelec chair served as election lawyer for the Ampatuans, that politically influential family in Maguindanao now facing trial for the world-infamous Maguindanao massacre that claimed the lives of more than 300 journalists in little more than an hour, and all in one day.

Also included in the long list of Brillantes clients are political superstars led by former President Joseph Estrada, Senator Francis "Chiz" Escudero, and Vice President Jejomar Binay, to name a few.

Considering that Elections 2013 is just two years away, it is expected that rivals of Brillantes' former clients would feel the nip of "probable bias" in his appointment. After all, the local officials elected in 2013 will translate to political alliances that could greatly affect the outcome of the 2016 Presidential elections.

I guess that is why the likes of Senator Allan Peter Cayetano and former senator Mar Roxas, as well as human rights activists and the media, find it incredibly difficult to accept the man like Sixto Brillantes, Jr. as head of the very organization that will define the quality and credibility of our nation's electoral exercises.

To all these reactions, Brillantes, who has been an active election lawyer for over 20 years, reiterated that he would not let these past connections tarnish his credibility as Comelec chair.

It is not to say that Brillantes has no defenders outside of P-Noy. The influential and credible Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) has openly endorsed Brillantes and said they will give him the benefit of the doubt.

Filipinos nowadays are getting more and more critical of people elected or appointed to public office. In a country where age is equated to years of patronage, rather than wisdom, the phrase "benefit of the doubt," carries more weight than ever before.