Duterte wants Guanzon out of 4 DQ petitions

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte on Friday insisted that Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rowena Guanzon must inhibit herself from hearing the four disqualification petitions filed against his candidacy on the ground that she has already prejudged his case.

Duterte also cited Guanzon’s friendship with lawyer Maria Shiela Bazar, counsel of University of the Philippines Student Council chair John Paulo Delas Nieves, who filed the third disqualification case against him.

The mayor, through his lawyer Vitaliano Aguirre, on Friday filed a motion for reconsideration of the Comelec First Division’s order denying his motions for inhibition against Guanzon “for lack of merit.”

In a 28-page petition, Duterte’s camp said Guanzon must inhibit after she met both qualifications for compulsory and voluntary inhibitions as provided by the Comelec Rules of Procedure.

Duterte insisted that Guanzon had manifested bias and prejudice against him in the disqualification case filed by broadcaster Ruben Castor when she dissented in the en banc resolution accepting his certificate of candidacy.