Guanzon won’t inhibit from Duterte DQ cases
The First Division of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday denied the motion for inhibition filed by presidential aspirant Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte against Commissioner Rowena Guanzon for “lack of merit.”
In a three-page order, the First Division said Guanzon, in a memorandum dated Jan. 18, had “rejected inhibiting from the cases of respondent Rodrigo Duterte.”
“Further, in another memorandum also dated Jan. 18, Commissioner Guanzon clarified that her rejection of the motion for inhibition applies to all cases filed against respondent Duterte,” it noted.
Duterte is facing four petitions for disqualification that have been consolidated at the First Division. The petitions were filed by broadcaster Ruben Castor, Elly Pamatong, Rizalito David and University of the Philippines Student Council chairman John Paolo de las Nieves.
But last week, Duterte’s lawyers filed a motion seeking Guanzon’s inhibition, claiming that she had shown her bias against the mayor when she became the lone dissenter in the Comelec’s Dec. 17, 2015 decision to accept his certificate of candidacy (COC) for president.
The motion also pointed to Guanzon’s close association with De las Nieves’ legal counsel Maria Sheila Bazar because the two are both members/ founders of the Gender Justice Network, an organization of lawyers and law students involved in gender issues.
In her memoranda, Guanzon maintained “there is no truth to the respondent’s claim of bias.”
“My dissenting vote on that resolution does not show that I believe, before the hearing began, that the COC of Duterte must be cancelled. It merely means that I wanted the Castor vs Duterte case to be heard before I vote to accept his COC,” she said.
Guanzon added that the grounds cited by Duterte “are not for mandatory inhibition, thus it is my discretion whether to inhibit or not.”
She said Bazar is not her relative, nor her sorority sister.
‘Take action vs Poe ad’
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court (SC) was asked yesterday to “take action” against the latest campaign advertisement of Sen. Grace Poe pertaining to her disqualification in the presidential election.
Former senator Francisco Tatad alleged in a five-page urgent manifestation that the television ad violates the sanctity of the judicial processes in the high court, which is set to hear in oral arguments today the petitions of the senator against rulings of the Comelec to cancel her COC for the presidency due to misrepresentation on her citizenship and residency eligibilities.
“Given its content, there is no question that the ad is intended to sway the honorable court into ruling in favor of petitioner in the cases at bar, and thus, contumacious,” read Tatad’s pleading filed through his lawyer Manuelito Luna.