Newly-appointed Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioners Ernesto Ferdinand P. Maceda, Jr. and Nelson J. Celis, took their respective Oaths of Office before Chairman George Erwin Garcia on Monday, Oct. 10 as well as in the presence of the whole Comelec en banc.

In a statement, Comelec said that Maceda and Celis will be assuming their respective offices later in the day, completing the process of their being part of the seven-member Comelec en banc through their ad interim appointments on Oct. 6.
Maceda will be joining the Comelec First Division composed of Commissioner Socorro Inting (Presiding) and Commissioner Aimee P. Ferolino, while Commissioner Celis will be part of the COMELEC Second Division composed of Commissioner Marlon Casquejo (Presiding) and Commissioner Rey Bulay.
"With the Commission en banc now complete, Chairman Garcia hopes to more efficiently resolve all pending cases and more effectively administer all forthcoming elections, plebiscites, referenda, and initiatives," Comelec said.
Pushing for structural reforms, organizational innovations, and out-of-the-box reform agenda, Maceda was asked by Garcia to take the helm of Task Force Kontra Bigay, the anti-vote buying/selling arm of the Commission, among others. Being a former lawmaker and academician, he will likewise be involved in the poll body's Election Law Reforms Committee.
Celis, on the other hand, will lead the Election Stakeholder's Summit scheduled on the first quarter of 2023. Comelec said that this Summit put into realization a consultative, all-inclusive, and comprehensive involvement of all election stakeholders in the 2025 Automated Elections.
Capitalizing on his expertise in Information Technology (IT), he will serve as the Vice-Chairperson of the Comelec Steering Committee for the computerization and digitization of the May 2025 National and Local Elections.
Celis was nominated last August by Malacañang as Comelec Commissioner to serve the unexpired term of former Commissioner Aimee Neri until February 2029. He is a veteran Information Technology Expert Practitioner and Academician.
Maceda is a constitutionalist, and is a respected personality in the academe, having taught election law, administrative law, public officers, public corporations and constitutional law subjects at the law schools of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM), Far Eastern University-De La Salle University JD-MBA Program and Arellano University. Prior to his appointment, Maceda was a professorial lecturer at the Ateneo Law School and was a Master of Laws thesis professor at the PLM Graduate School of Law.