MANILA – Former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chief Sixto Brillantes Jr. passed away after he contracted coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez confirmed Brillantes’ passing at around 11 a.m. on Tuesday but did not specify if the latter died due to complications of COVID-19.
“Former COMELEC Chairman Sixto S. Brillantes Jr., has passed away today. He will be fondly remembered by his grateful COMELEC family. He was 80 years old,” Jimenez said in a social media post.
Late last month, Brillantes was tested positive for COVID-19 and was intubated at a hospital so he could breathe, his daughter Zeena wrote in a Facebook post.
Brillantes served as Comelec chairman from 2011 to 2015 under then President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III. At the start of his tenure in the poll body, he promised that the country would have fully-automated elections by 2016.
Brillanes was also a prominent election lawyer who handled high-profile clients like former President Joseph Estrada, the Ampatuan family, the late tycoon Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco, and the late actor Fernando Poe Jr.
Malacañang extended its sympathy to the relatives of Brillantes, who “have served the nation well” during his time as Comelec chair, according to Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque. “We condole with the family of Chair Brillantes, and of course he served the nation well when he was the chairman of the COMELEC,” Roque said in a virtual press conference on Tuesday./PN
