Commissioner Rowena Guanzon of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) believes that an influential senator is behind the delay in the release of the resolution on the consolidated disqualification cases filed against presidential aspirant Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Guanzon, 65, who is retiring on February 2 after serving seven years as commissioner, declined to identify the senator but said it was not Marcos’ sister Imee.
“The plan is to delay the resolution of this case until after I retire so that my vote will not be counted. This is a conspiracy to defeat my vote,” she said.
“This is unfair to me and unjust to the Filipino people. The voters have to know if their candidate is qualified or not,” she said.
Guanzon said it is also unfair for Marcos Jr. because if he loses in the Comelec 1st Division he can still go to the commission en banc for a motion for reconsideration all the way to the Supreme Court.
If Marcos Jr. wins the presidency and he is disqualified by the SC after the elections then he will not be able to assume office and the elected vice president will be the one to succeed, she said.
The commissioner on Thursday said she voted for the disqualification of Marcos Jr. from running for president in May for having committed “moral turpitude” when he failed to pay his taxes for four years as Ilocos Norte governor as ruled by a Regional Trial Court, and a court ordered fine.
However, Comelec Commissioner Aimee Ferolino, tasked with writing the resolution in the disqualification case has delayed its release, Guanzon said.
Ferolino, in a letter to Comelec Chairman Sheriff Abas Friday, published by Rappler, said “It is quite appalling that Commissioner Guanzon was able to draft an opinion when the ponencia has not yet submitted her resolution and all the case records are in my possession.”
She also accused Guanzon of trying to influence her decision denied that she was causing undue delay.
“My office is well within the timelines, as well as within the bounds of the rules,” Ferolino also said.
Gaunzon said she believes an influential and powerful senator is behind Ferolino’s not releasing the resolution and publicly going against a presiding commissioner. Guanzon is the presiding commissioner of the Comelec 1st Division.
“She would not do this on her own,” Guanzon said, adding that Ferolino on January 24 was still replying to her text messages.
Gaunzon said she asked Ferolino if she wanted to wave the writing of the resolution to Commissioner Marlon Casquejo since she appeared to be having a difficult time writing it but she did not.
Ferolino did not practice law, she was already a Comelec employee when she took the bar, so she is not trained in writing decisions, Guanzon said.
“If she waved on January 24 by now Commissioner Casquejo would have already finished it”, Guanzon said.
Guanzon said she is urging Ferolino to release the resolution by Monday because she is retiring at midnight of February 2.
“She should release it because she may be liable for violation of Section 3C of the Anti Graft and Corrupt Practices Act,” Guanzon said.
Ferolino has still not gotten in touch with her. The Comelec had an executive session to discuss the problem and she requested COMELEC Chairman Abas to call Ferolino, Guanzon said.
Ferolino, in her letter to Abas, said she has been bombarded with messages from Guanzon on when the resolution will be out every single day since the Marcos case was raffled to her office.
“Out of respect, I have been cordial and civil with Commissioner Guanzon, even accommodating her sometimes out of line messages to me.
However, these past few days, I had to limit my kindness and stopped entertaining her because she has taken away from me my privacy and peace,” Ferolino wrote Abas.
Guanzon said she was informed by Salvador Panelo that President Rodrigo Duterte has orders for his people not to intervene in the work of the Comelec.
The Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) of Marcos has accused Guanzon of illegally disclosing her vote with undue haste and wants her disbarred.
“Because of her premature disclosure or leaking of her unpromulgated dissenting opinion, Commissioner Guanzon should be disbarred with forfeiture of her retirement benefits and lifetime pension because she destroyed the reputation of the institution, which these moneys come from,” said PFP general counsel George Briones in a statement Friday.
“Disbar me? I am an exemplary member of the bar…Let them try,” she said, stressing that she knows her law.
In a Tweet Friday, Guanzon said “I challenge George Briones of Partido Federal of BBM to a debate on TV. If he thinks he is brighter than me, he should agree, they are diverting the issue”.
On PFP urging COMELEC to conduct probe on her after she disclosed her decision to vote for the disqualification of Marcos, Guanzon said “I am a constitutional commissioner…The commission en banc has no jurisdiction over administrative complaints against me.”*