BBM camp to SC, Comelec: Disbar, punish, Comm. Rowena Guanzon

THE camp of leading presidential candidate, Ferdinand ‘Bongbong/BBM’ Marcos Jr., is calling on the Supreme Court (SC) and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to investigate and afterwards, immediately impose severe sanctions and punishments against controversial Comm. Rowena Guanzon of the Comelec’s First Division for the “illegal disclosure” and “leakage” of her opinion to the media calling for Marcos’ disqualification.

Citing several provisions of every lawyer’s ‘Canon of Judicial Ethics,’ Atty. George Briones, general counsel of the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP), in a statement last January 28, 2022, said Guanzon, an appointee of the late Pres. Noynoy Aquino, should be disbarred and her benefits and pension, forfeited.

“The PFP requests the Comelec en banc to conduct an administrative investigation immediately against Commissioner Rowena Guanzon for her violation of (the) Canons of Judicial Ethics and Code of Judicial Conduct before her retirement benefits are released,” the statement reads.

Guanzon is set to retire this coming February 2, 2022, having been appointed to the poll body in 2015— but not after her appointment by Aquino to the Commission on Audit (COA) was rejected by the Committee on Appointments (CA) of Congress two years previously, in 2013.

A day before the PFP statement, Guanzon, in a television interview over GMA-7, “illegally disclosed and leaked with undue haste” her vote to disqualify Marcos,” the PFP complained.

The PFP is the political party of Marcos for the May 9, 2022 elections.

Briones said Guanzon’s revelations are “fake news” and “false as no decision has been made and promulgated yet by the Comelec First Division that is also hearing the remaining petitions against Marcos.

In her media interviews, Guanzon also intrigued that her two fellow commissioners, Aimee Ferolino and Marlon Cascuejo, are the ones delaying the division’s decision on the consolidated disqualification cases against Marcos. She claimed her opinion has been ready as far back as January 17, 2022, the date he announced on ‘Twitter’ that the decision would be released.

Other petitions against Marcos have been dismissed on the same date by the Comelec Second Division. In that decision, the Second Division also flayed the petitioners for trying to “deceive” the poll body into granting their request to cancel Marcos’ certificate of candidacy (see also Pinoy Exposé article of January 19, 2022).

With the dismissal by the Second Division of the petitions against Marcos, the fate of his disqualification now rests with the First Division chaired by Guanzon—who has now resorted to using the media to “sell” her minority and dissenting opinion in a bid to sway public opinion and sympathy to her side.

But according to Briones, Guanzon should be instead disbarred and her retirement benefits and pension forfeited.

“Because of her premature disclosure or leaking of her unpromulgated dissenting opinion, Commissioner Guanzon should be disbarred, with forfeiture of her retirement benefits and lifetime pension because she destroyed the reputation of the institution (Comelec) where these money come from,” Briones said.

Citing Rule 2.01 of the lawyer’s canon, Briones said a judge “should abstain from making public comments on any pending or impending case and should require similar restraint on the part of court personnel.”

The PFP was also unsparing in its criticism of Guanzon, whom it accused of being openly partisan to the candidacy of Vice President Leni Robredo to the extent that she is willing to break the confidentiality of the deliberations on a pending case before the poll body and being an “incorrigible narcissist.”

The party said that although retiring this week, both the Comelec and the SC can still proceed to investigate and punish Guanzon, dismissing her argument that she is exempt from any disciplinary action as poll commissioners can only be removed by impeachment.

“Commissioner Guanzon impeded and degraded the administration of justice…(O)nce the said impeachable officer is no longer in office because of her retirement the court may proceed against her and impose the corresponding sanctions for misconduct committed during her tenure. (In Re Biraogo, A.M. No. 09-2-19-SC, February 24, 2009).”

Guanzon’s “appalling” conduct

In a separate, 3-page letter to Comelec chair Sheriff Abbas also last January 28, 2022, Ferolino said the delay in the release of the decision cannot be attributed to other quarters meddling in the case as claimed by Guanzon in her media interviews.

Ferolino, the assigned ‘ponente’ of the decision, noted that it was only last January 7, 2022 that a preliminary hearing on Marcos’ cases was held and that it was only on January 14, 2022 that she received the consolidated offer of evidence by the camp of Marcos and the motion for preliminary conference filed by the petitioners.

The proceedings were further delayed after it turned out that 2 of the lawyers who attended the hearing last January 7, tested positive for COVID-19.

“Initially, Commissioner Guanzon announced on Twitter that the case is to be promulgated on January 17… it was Twitter and not the commissioners who first knew of the promulgation date,” Ferolino bewailed.

She added that it was only Guanzon who has been imposing on her and Cascuejo the January 17 “deadline” as the three of them have no prior agreement on the date of promulgation.

“In all honesty chair (Abbas), it was not only the date of the promulgation that she (Guanzon) imposed upon me,” Ferolino bared.

“She also consistently took liberties in telling me to adopt her opinion. It is quite appalling that Commissioner Guanzon was able to draft an opinion when the Ponencia has not yet submitted the (draft) resolution and all the case records are in my possession… The Presiding Commissioner of the First Division is putting the cart before the horse to justify her demands,” Ferolino added.

She also stressed that instead of ‘undue delay’ as claimed by Guanzon, what is happening is ‘undue rush’ on the part of Guanzon to pressure her and Cascuejo to give in to her ‘caprice.”

Ferolino also complained to Abbas that with Guanzon and “with pleasure and agitation” disclosed to the public that she would be the ‘ponente’ of the decision, she would be subjected not only to “pressure” but also, expose her to “threat to my safety and security.”