ON her last day with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday, Commissioner Rowena Guanzon continued to push for the release of a decision on disqualification cases filed against presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., saying the delay will only favor the former senator.
The Comelec First Division’s ruling on the consolidated cases against Marcos had been expected on January 17, and the delay has led to a public spat between Guanzon, who is the division’s presiding commissioner, and Commissioner Aimee Ferolino, who is the designated ponencia. Marlon Casquejo if the third member of the division.
Guanzon has accused Ferolino of deliberately delaying the release of the decision in a bid to nullify her vote as she is retiring. Guanzon last week made public her vote, which is for Marcos’ disqualification.
“They want to delay it so that he (Marcos) will win, and then, hopefully he can sit. And even if the Supreme Court will disqualify him a year after the elections, he can still sit,” Guanzon in a television interview.
“There is a grand design to delay it,” she added.
She said the delay will favor Marcos because he will remain in the list of official candidates with Election Day just three months away.
“It’s better that he should be disqualified before the elections so his wife can substitute and voters will not be confused. If they voted for him, and, eventually, he is disqualified, they will be frustrated,” she said.
Guanzon is a nominee for the post of deputy ombudsman for the Visayas, according to the Judicial and Bar Council.
Guanzon’s name was included in the JBC shortlist dated December 17 and submitted to Malacañang.
The others in the shortlist are Dante Flores Vargas and Beda Angeles Epres.
They are nominated to take the place of Paul Elmer M. Clemente whose term of office ended in November 2021.
The Comelec held retirement ceremonies at the Sofitel Philippines Plaza for Guanzon, Chairman Sheriff Abas, and Commissioner Antonio Kho.
Given as token for their seven years of service at the poll body were Philippine and Comelec flags, Book of Decisions, gavel, pen, pin, and robe.
Abas, Guanzon, and Kho gave their final addresses to the Comelec officials and personnel.
Left to man the Comelec are Commissioners Ferolino, Casquejo, Socorro Inting, and Rey Bulay, all of whom are appointees of President Duterte.
Inting is expected to be the acting chairman pending Duterte’s appointment of a new chair and commissioners.
Meanwhile, the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG) which is probing a supposed assassination plot against Marcos, through the social media application TikTok, said the threat came from the account with username “@ljluna7” which it said “appears to have been deleted.”
“It is a public account (which) supports the Kabataan party list account with 133 followers,” the ACG added.
The ACG said TikTok has banned the account.
“The source data however is being preserved to establish the ownership of the account involved. All screenshots of the alleged threatening comments/messages were taken from open sources,” the ACG said.
The threat was in the form of a comment to a video that was uploaded on TikTok. A screen grab of the comment was shared by another TikTok user and went viral.
The comment says: “Nagmemeeting kami araw araw para paghandaang ipa aasasinate naming si BBM humanda kayo. (We are meeting every day to plan BBM’s assassination. Get ready.”
ACG chief Brig. Gen. Robert Rodriguez said: “We have to bear in mind that tiktok app is something that people don’t take seriously.”
“It is usually used to relieve one’s stress thru dancing, lip synching, acting or dubbing. So, before we conclude anything as with regards to the online threat, we have to investigate and validate the veracity of the report,” added Rodriguez. — With Victor Reyes
