The personal made political
WHAT began as a private matter— the sad but no longer uncommon end of a marriage— has spilled over into the political arena.
When she brought her grievance to Malacañang late last July, Patricia Paz Bautista exposed her husband, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Andres Bautista, to a lot of questions with more at stake than the state of their m ar r i age.
One of the most immediate questions is whether Bautista, who declared a net worth of nearly P174 million in his 2016 statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN), omitted millions from that required annual declaration.
His wife has claimed that he could have around P1.2 billion in undeclared assets. In his defense, the Comelec chief has said that his estranged wife had lied and fabricated some of the documents she has so far shown Malacañang, the justice department’s National Bureau of Investigation, and some journalists.
Other documents, he added, referred to cash and real estate that belonged not to him but to other members of his family. Unfortunately for Chairman Bautista, this controversy escalated quickly. It has resurrected questions about the integrity of the May 2016 automated elections, some results of which remain under protest. We don’t have enough facts at the moment to gauge how valid Mrs. Bautista’s claims are.
We don’t know if the checks that Chairman Bautista received from a private law firm had to do with its dealings with Smartmatic, the company that provided the machines used in all three automated elections in this country so far.
The Comelec chief has so far said these were payments for a condo unit he had sold, as well as referral fees for transactions that had nothing to do with the poll body. In a statement posted on his Twitter account last Monday, Chairman Bautista said he was convinced that his estranged wife has allowed herself “to be used by certain people and groups to promote a political agenda designed to cast aspersions on me and the Comelec’s work in the 2016 elections.”
As curious but responsible citizens, we can only hope the justice department’s investigators examine the claims against Chairman Bautista as thoroughly and transparently as they can. Yet we also know that in these times we live in, it can be hard for the truth to catch up to the rumors and speculations that have gone ahead of it. — Sunnex