Comelec: All’s well that ends well

If Election Commissioner Arthur Lim is to be believed, Comelec Chair Andres Bautista and Commissioner Rowena Guanzon have buried the hatchet and that all was well again at the poll body. INQUIRER FILES

All’s well that ends well, according to Election Commissioner Arthur Lim.

Lim and six other commissioners appeared together at a press conference Tuesday to assure the public that all had been settled in the poll body after the publicized verbal tussle between poll Chair Andres Bautista and Commissioner Rowena Guanzon over the latter’s “unauthorized” submission of a legal comment to the Supreme Court.

All seven commissioners presented themselves to media to emphasize that they had settled their differences and were united amid legal challenges.

“We would like to give assurance to our people that the Comelec (Commission on Elections) is firmly committed to the holding of a clean, honest, orderly, peaceful and credible election in 2016, and we shall not be sidetracked by any other issues other than to focus on the 2016 elections and make it a successful exercise for our people,” said Commissioner Arthur Lim, who spoke on behalf of the commission.

“We are united and focused to do the mandate that the Constitution has given to us,” he added.

“In the past few days, you have been witness to certain issues or controversy that involved the commission, particularly our good chairman and good commissioner Guanzon. But that is to be expected in the light of any collegial body. The important thing is that we are able to address the issues and we have now decided to move forward and to leave all these controversies behind us,” Lim said

“All is well that ends well,” Lim added.

Ahead of schedule

He also said that the Comelec was on track in all the election timelines.

“Even as we speak the voting machines are arriving in the port of Manila and the warehousing requirements and all other related activities are on track. We are even ahead of schedule and we shall, with the help of divine providence, fulfill our mandate to the best of our ability,” Lim said.

“All the controversy in the past has finally been resolved and settled,” he claimed.

Earlier this week, Bautista branded as “unauthorized” a legal comment submitted by Guanzon to the Supreme Court on the petition of Sen. Grace Poe to overturn the Comelec’s decision to disqualify her from the presidential race.

Bautista issued a memorandum directing Guanzon and Maria Norina Tangaro-Casingal, director of the Comelec’s law department, to “explain within 24 hours under whose authority” Thursday’s comment was filed.

Guanzon fired back, insisting that only the full commission, not Bautista, could say that the comment she filed was “unauthorized.”

In an interview with reporters a few hours after the commissioners faced the media, Guanzon said: “What is important now is what’s good for the country and the Comelec. We should just move forward from here.”

But all is still not well from the point of view of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, another presidential candidate facing disqualification cases.

Duterte wants Guanzon to inhibit from participating in the disqualification cases filed against him.

In a petition, Duterte said Guanzon had shown bias when she became the lone dissenter in the commission’s decision last Dec. 17 to accept the certificate of candidacy of Duterte without prejudice to pending disqualification cases against him.

The petition noted how Guanzon’s dissenting opinion pointed at issues against Duterte that were not even mentioned by the petitioner (broadcaster Ruben Castor), showing her prejudgment of the case.

Due process, fair play

“Respondent Duterte humbly submits that Commissioner Guanzon, consistent with due process and fair play, should have refrained from making any adverse conclusions with respect to the election documents of a candidate without first seeing and reading an actual petition raising such allegations and issues,” it added.

Aside from her questionable dissenting opinion, Duterte’s camp also pointed to Guanzon’s close association to the lawyer of another petitioner against the Davao mayor—University of the Philippines Student Council chair John Paulo Delas Nieves. The lawyer, Maria Sheila Bazar, and Guanzon are both members and founders of the Gender Justice Network, Duterte’s petition said.

Duterte is facing four disqualification cases filed by Castor, Delas Nieves, Rizalito David and lawyer Eli Pamatong.

The cases all allege that Duterte cannot substitute for Martin Diño, whose certificate of candidacy is materially defective and, therefore, invalid.