Guanzon dares Bautista to open Comelec records to public

Comelec commissioner Rowena Guanzon talks to media. ARIES JOSEPH HEGINA / INQUIRER.NET

Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner Rowena Guanzon is challenging poll body chair Andres Bautista to open the agency’s records to the public to show how the commissioners “acted in the discharge of their functions.”

Guanzon issued a statement on Sunday after the camp of Senator Grace Poe told Bautista to investigate members of the commission to identify those “forwarding their political agenda” in order to exclude her from the 2016 presidential race.

She said that she would not back down from a fight that puts her integrity at stake.

“As an honest public servant with 20 years of government service, I have never walked away from a good fight especially when my integrity has been impugned,” Guanzon said.

“Senator Poe urges Chair Bautista to probe us commissioners. This is my challenge to Chair Bautista, let us open all the records and minutes of the Commission to show to the public how the commission members, IN THE SPIRIT OF TRANSPARENCY, acted in the discharge of their functions,” she added.

She concluded, “Let the public decide who among us genuinely live up to the ideals of integrity in public service.”

Poe’s camp observed that Comelec was “in disarray” as Bautista called out Guanzon for filing an “unauthorized” comment before the Supreme Court regarding Poe’s pleadings to overturn the decisions of the Comelec’s First and Second Division disqualifying the senator from the election.

Bautista issued a memorandum requiring Guanzon to explain her actions. The Comelec chief said that Guanzon’s move to file a comment without the other commissioners reviewing it was “not only irregular but [also] personally disrespectful.”

The commissioner, on the other hand, maintained that she had the authority to file the comment on behalf of the poll body. She said that Bautista had no control over her.

“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 last Friday.
Bautista said that if he found the explanation of Guanzon unsatisfactory, he would be “constrained to inform the Supreme Court that the filing of the comment was unauthorized.”
In a dzBB radio interview on Sunday, Guanzon said that Bautista should be thankful that she filed the comment on behalf of the poll body.

“Dapat magpasalamat pa ang Chairman na gumawa kami (ng comment),” she said.