How did Bongbong Marcos’ party learn that the vote to disqualify him as presidential candidate was a “minority opinion?” Commissioner on Elections Rowena Guanzon demanded explanations since the three-member First Division that she heads has yet to release its decision. “Did you pay off anybody here at the Comelec?” she asked Marcos through radio show Sapol-dwIZ Saturday.
Guanzon pressed Commissioner-on-case Aimee Ferolino to finish drafting the “overdue ruling.” Thence Guanzon and Commissioner Marlon Casquejo can sign either to concur or dissent. Only then can they release the division verdict, Guanzon explained the procedure. Only then too would the public know whose are the majority and minority opinions, if any.
Guanzon last Thursday told GMA News her vote to DQ Marcos as convicted tax evader. But an influential senator was allegedly delaying release of the Division ruling till after her retirement today, Feb. 2.
Marcos’ Partido Federal Pilipinas accused Guanzon on Friday of “illegally leaking” her “dissenting [and] minority opinion” to DQ. PFP general counsel George Briones asked the Comelec en banc to sanction Guanzon and forfeit her retirement pay.
“Does that mean they paid off somebody?” Guanzon shot back. Ferolino has yet to relay her ponencia (draft ruling) to Guanzon and Casquejo. “Why do they (PFP) know that mine is the minority vote… and that I lost?”
“So, Bongbong, tell the public: Did you bribe a commissioner, yes or no?” Guanzon challenged.
Guanzon said she broke no rules by divulging her vote. What would have been wrong was if anyone disclosed their division ruling before promulgation to the DQ petitioners and respondent Marcos. “But the privilege of secret vote is mine,” Guanzon clarified. “If I want to disclose my vote I can do so.”
Guanzon said Saturday it has been 19 days since the Marcos DQ case was raffled off to Ferolino on Jan. 10. Their division has an agreement to finish any ponencia in seven days, Guanzon said. Ferolino had sought more time because her staff lawyer, then she, went on self-quarantine for COVID-19. “But the quarantine period is past; besides, one can write drafts while in quarantine; we all do that,” Guanzon added. She prides herself in zero backlog in case disposal.
Guanzon hurried up Ferolino with her draft “so that neither of us can be accused of taking bribes.” Marcos’ campaign war chest is vaunted to be the biggest among presidential aspirants. Much of it allegedly comes from unrecovered billions of pesos plundered by his dictator-father Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in the 1960s-1980s.
Guanzon’s division first heard on Jan. 7 consolidated petitions to DQ Marcos. Those pertain to his perpetual bar from public office, under the National Internal Revenue Code, for not filing income tax returns in 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1985. As well, automatic bar under the Omnibus Election Code for any convict of crime involving moral turpitude.
Guanzon told Sapol she already gave the summary of case facts and her DQ explanation to Ferolino. If still unable to finish the ponencia way past deadline, Ferolino could pass on the job to Casquejo, Guanzon said. Guanzon could write it herself if not for a rule that no ponencia be assigned one month before a division head’s retirement.
Marcos has not satisfied the court sentence to pay his tax deficiencies and surcharges from 1982-1985 and P30,000 penalty, Guanzon said. Marcos’ bank receipt as proof of payment to the BIR of deficiencies and surcharges, stating “for lease rentals,” is a mere photocopy and not certified as true for legal proceedings. The Quezon City court that convicted him attested that he has not paid the P30,000 penalty.
Not only the non-payments constituted moral turpitude, Guanzon said. That Marcos did it for four consecutive years, when he was vice governor then governor of Ilocos and the son of the president-for-life, showed impunity in lawbreaking.
The Comelec Second Division earlier dismissed a separate case to invalidate Marcos’ candidacy for perjuring in the certificate. He had claimed to be eligible to run and denied any previous conviction.
That case became controversial. The petitioners complained that Marcos’ spokesman displayed “undue, intimate, insider familiarity with the Commission.” That spokesman is not a Marcos Jr. “counsel on record, therefore an outsider.” Yet he announced in the morning of Nov. 18 that they had been granted the previous day, Nov. 17, a deadline extension to answer. The Second Division granted that extension only in the afternoon of Nov. 18.
Sinovac safety efficacy and price still need clarifying
* * *
Catch “Sapol” radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., dwIZ (882-AM)
“Gotcha: An Exposé on the Philippine Government” is available as e-book and paperback. Get a free copy of “Chapter 1: Beijing’s Bullying and Duplicity”. Simply subscribe to my newsletter HERE. Book orders also accepted there.