DAVAO CITY -- President Aquino has appointed former ambassador and Justice undersecretary Macabangkit Lanto and election lawyer Ma. Bernadette Sardillo as new commissioners of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Lanto and Sardillo will fill the vacancies in the poll body left by retired Commissioners Rene Sarmiento and Armado Velasco last month.

Aquino said he will transmit soon the appointment papers of the two new Comelec commissioners to the Commission on Appointments for confirmation.