Comelec Chair Andres Bautista and Election Commissioner Rowena Guanzon. FILE PHOTO
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Saturday appeared to be in disarray, with two of its members locking horns over the “unauthorized” filing of a comment in the Supreme Court for the junking of Sen. Grace Poe’s petitions for the reversal of two rulings by the poll watchdog to disqualify her from the presidential election in May.
The disclosure of the unauthorized comment prompted Poe’s camp to ask Comelec Chair Andres Bautista to expose the members of the election commission who had their own “political agenda” and working for her elimination from the presidential race.
READ: Comelec chair: Comment on Poe’s cases filed before SC ‘unauthorized’
Poe’s camp also said that if the Comelec comment was indeed unauthorized, she would ask the Supreme Court to strike it off the records for a faster resolution of her cases.
Talking to reporters late on Friday, Bautista disclosed that Election Commissioner Rowena Guanzon filed a comment on Poe’s pleadings to the Supreme Court to overturn the decisions of the Comelec First and Second Divisions to disqualify her from the election without clearance from him or the full commission.
Bautista said Guanzon put his name on the document, but he had neither read nor signed it.
READ: Guanzon: Bautista asked to put his name on Comelec comment
In the comment filed by Guanzon on Thursday, the Comelec asked the Supreme Court to junk Poe’s challenge to the decisions of the First and Second Divisions to cancel her certificate of candidacy for President for her failure to prove that she was a natural-born Filipino and meet the 10-year residency requirement for presidential candidates.
Order to explain
Bautista issued a memorandum on Friday directing Guanzon and Maria Norina Tangaro-Casingal, director of the Comelec’s law department, to explain “under whose authority the comment was filed.”
He said he found the filing of the comment without giving him and the other members of the Comelec a chance to review its contents “not only irregular but [also] personally disrespectful.”
Bautista gave Guanzon and Casingal 24 hours to explain. If their explanation was unsatisfactory, Bautista said he would be “constrained to inform the Supreme Court that the filing of the comment was unauthorized.”
Guanzon rejected Bautista’s directive, insisting that she had the authority to file the comment.
“I must emphasize that as a commissioner, I am not a subordinate or [an] employee of Chair Bautista and he has no administrative supervision or control over me,” Guanzon said in a two-page statement, an image of which she posted on her Twitter account late Friday.
Guanzon said Bautista’s actions on Friday hurt the image of the Comelec and could have damaged the commission’s case in the Supreme Court.
“The memorandum of Chair Bautista unfortunately damaged the image of the institution and I am afraid might prejudice our case,” she said.
“Our first priority should be the institution and the country that we must serve faithfully,” she said.
Guanzon said the preparation and filing of the comment “had the imprimatur of the Comelec en banc.”
She said she was compelled to issue the statement to defend herself against the “serious accusations” of Bautista.
Guanzon said Bautista’s statements stained her “reputation as [an election] commissioner and as a lawyer.”
Bautista declined to comment on Guanzon’s statement on Saturday, saying he would take up the matter during a session of the full commission.
Poe’s camp expressed concern about a brawl in the Comelec that may have been provoked by the actions of members of the commission who were biased against the senator.
“It’s alarming to see that the very institution tasked [with overseeing] the conduct of orderly elections is in disarray,” Valenzuela Mayor Rex Gatchalian, a spokesperson for Poe, said in a statement.
Unmask them
Without mentioning names, Gatchalian pressed the belief in Poe’s camp that some members of the Comelec were pursuing their own “political agenda” and working against Poe.
Gatchalian urged Bautista to open an impartial investigation, unmask those members of the commission and “make them publicly accountable.”
He said the actions of Guanzon were “wrong, as she is usurping the powers reserved for the [Comelec] en banc.”
“The actions of Commissioner Guanzon are undermining our electoral process and endangering our very democracy,” Gatchalian said.
Poe’s next move
Poe’s lawyer George Garcia said she would ask the Supreme Court to “expunge” from the records the Comelec comment if it was true that the filing was unauthorized.
He said Poe would also ask the Supreme Court to declare the Comelec had waived its right to comment on her petitions to overturn the poll watchdog’s rulings disqualifying her from the presidential race.
Garcia could not say, however, if such a motion would lead to the cancellation of oral arguments on the case set by the Supreme Court for Jan. 19.
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