Commission on Elections 1st Division presiding commissioner Rowena Guanzon said she has voted for the disqualification (DQ) of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. from running for president in May.
She voted for the disqualification of Marcos “because he was convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude”, Guanzon said Thursday, January 27.
The votes of the two other commissioners on the three consolidated disqualification cases against Marcos pending before the 1st Division are still needed for a final decision.
Marcos did not pay his taxes for four years when he was governor of Ilocos Norte and he was sentenced by a Regional Trial Court to imprisonment and to pay a fine, Guanzon said.
He did not pay just once but for four years, she said.
Marcos then filed an appeal with the Court of Appeals that convicted him also but ordered him to only pay a fine, she added.
But he did not pay the fine, Guanzon said.
Even if COMELEC Commissioner Aimee Ferolino, the ponente, has not submitted her resolution on the Marcos case, Guanzon said her vote for disqualification will still be counted even after she retires.
Guanzon, who retires as Comelec commissioner on February 2, said she and Commissioner Marlon Casquejo have been trying to reach Ferolino but she has not been replying.
Ferolino is not sick and her quarantine is over after she said she was a close contact of one of her lawyers who was hit with COVID-19, said Guanzon, who is from Cadiz City in Negros Occidental.
Guanzon said she has requested COMELEC Chairman Sheriff Abas to call Ferolino.
An option for Ferolino was to wave writing the resolution if she could not finish it on time and Casquejo could take over, Guanzon said.
They had agreed that the resolution of the case that was raffled off to the 1st Division on January 10 would be out in seven days, she pointed out.
“I believe there is political interference here…it was delayed because they already know my vote. They think if I retire my vote will not count, which is not true,” Guanzon said of some pro-Marcos politicians.
Guanzon said she called Salvador Panelo, former chief presidential legal counsel and spokesperson, and he told her the president has instructions not to interfere with Comelec.*