Guanzon stays on Duterte DQ panel

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte INQUIRER PHOTO/RAFFY LERMA

HERE’S bad news for PDP-Laban presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte.

Against the Davao City mayor’s wish, Election Commissioner Rowena Guanzon will continue to participate in the disqualification cases against him in the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

The Comelec First Division issued an order late Monday denying the motions for inhibition against Guanzon filed by Duterte camp in all the four disqualification cases filed against the mayor “for lack of merit.”

In a three-page order, the First Division said the grounds for inhibition of a commission member which Duterte invoked were voluntary and not mandatory as stated under Rule 4 of the Comelec Rules of Procedure.

In issuing the order, the First Division cited Guanzon’s memorandum rejecting Duterte’s plea for her to inhibit herself from all four cases.

Bias showing

The order was signed by presiding Commissioner Christian Robert Lim and Commissioners Guanzon and Luie Guia.

In asking Guanzon not to participate in the cases, Duterte said she had shown her bias against him in the disqualification case filed by broadcaster Ruben Castor when she dissented in the en banc resolution accepting his certificate of candidacy.

Her bias also allegedly showed at the hearing of the case in December when she pointed out issues that were not even mentioned in the petition.

Guanzon’s alleged close ties to Sheila Bazar, the lawyer of another petitioner against the Davao mayor, University of the Philippines Student Council chair John Paulo Delas Nieves, was also cited in Duterte’s motion for inhibition.

Based on evidence, law

In a two-page memorandum submitted to the First Division, Guanzon denied Duterte’s claims and stressed that she would decide every case without bias and her decision would be based on evidence and the law.

“It is not based on who the parties’ counsel is,” she said.

“My dissenting vote on that resolution does not show that I believe, before the hearings began, that the COC of Duterte must be canceled. It merely means that I wanted the Castor vs Duterte case to be heard before I vote to accept his COC,” said Guanzon.

The grounds for disqualification cited by Duterte were not for mandatory inhibition, thus it was at her discretion whether to inhibit or not, she said.

Guanzon also denied that she and Bazar were relatives or sorority sisters. Bazar was a member of a “rival” sorority in UP and of the “now inactive” Gender Justice Network, which is open to women lawyers from all colleges of law and law students, she pointed out.

Online groups inactive

“The Yahoo!, Facebook groups ‘Gender Justice Network’ and Instagram account that Duterte’s lawyers referred to were long dormant,” she said, adding that a photograph of her with Bazar was taken five years ago with another lawyer who was at that time with the Makati Regional Trial Court.

She also enumerated her work and advocacies as an accomplished lawyer before her appointment as election commissioner, which allowed her to meet many colleagues.

“Naturally, I have met many lawyers in the course of my work and advocacies. I also have lawyer friends who are associated with political parties or candidates. I am confident that none of them, including my classmates, expect a favorable decision from me by reason of our association,” she said.

Duterte is facing four disqualification cases in the Comelec filed by Castor, Delas Nieves, lawyer Eli Pamatong and Rizalito David. All the cases allege that Duterte cannot substitute for anticrime advocate Martin Diño, whose COC was defective and invalid.