Duterte loses plea to inhibit Guanzon from DQ cases

IT seems that the tough-talking mayor has finally met his match.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) junked the petition filed by presidential aspirant Rodrigo Duterte asking Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon to inhibit from the disqualification cases filed against him before the poll body.

In a three-page decision promulgated on Monday, the Comelec First Division dismissed the petition filed by Duterte asking Guanzon to inhibit in the disqualification cases filed against him for lack of merit.

The order said that under Comelec Rules of Procedure, the grounds for inhibition being invoked by Duterte against Guanzon are voluntary.

“It bears stressing that the grounds for inhibition of a Member of this Commission invoked by respondent Duterte are voluntary, and not mandatory, as explicitly stated in Rule 4, Comelec Rules of Procedure,” the order read.

Attached in the First Division’s order are two separate memorandums from Guanzon, both dated January 18, where she rejected inhibiting in all cases filed against Duterte.

Duterte alleged that Guanzon should inhibit in his cases for two reasons:

– First, she has allegedly shown bias against the mayor in her dissenting opinion in the disqualification case filed by broadcaster Ruben Castor.

– Second, Guanzon supposedly has close ties with Shiela Bazar, the lawyer of another petitioner against the feisty mayor—University of the Philippines Diliman University Student Council Chairperson John Paulo delas Nieves.

Guanzon is a member of the Comelec First Division, along with presiding commissioner Christian Robert Lim and commissioner Luis Tito Guia.