Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Socorro B. Inting confirmed on Tuesday her resignation as chair of the poll body’s gun ban committee.
In a brief statement to reporters, the former Associate Justice of the Court Appeals disclosed her decision is a form of “silent” defiance.
“I am a Justice by heart than a Comelec Commissioner. I will maintain a dignified silence. My resignation is a passive protest,” Inting said.
Inting made the announcement a day after the Comelec en banc issued a new resolution granting automatic exemption to some government officials and their security detail from the gun ban.
The new resolution also granted the Comelec Chairman Saidamen B. Pangarungan the power to grant exemptions from bearing, carrying and transporting of firearms or other deadly weapons.
It also empowered him to place election areas of concern under Comelec control.
The new resolution was approved by four of the seven-man Comelec en banc, namely Pangarungan and Comelec Commissioners Rey E. Bulay, George M. Garcia, and Aimee Torrefranca-Neri.
Among the Commissioners, who dissented or expressed reservation in approving the resolution were Inting, Marlon S. Casquejo, and Aimee P. Ferolino.