PRESIDENT Arroyo has appointed Marawi City provincial prosecutor Elias Yusoph as the new commissioner of the Commission on Elections.

Yusoph?s appointment would fill up the lone vacancy in the poll body, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said, adding he was highly recommended by the Bishops Ulama Conference and the Ulama League of the Philippines.

?Among others, it says in the recommendation of the Bishops Ulama Conference that the appointment of attorney Yusoph in the Comelec will not only show the sincerity of the government in appointing a Muslim in this constitutional body, but will also infuse a new personality in the

commission,? Ermita said.

Yusoph passed the bar in 1977 and now teaches law at the Mindanao State University. He replaces Commissioner Romeo Brawner who died in May. Joyce Pangco Pa?ares