Article by:
Ferdinand Patinio
MANILA – Commission on Elections (Comelec) First Division presiding Commissioner Rowena Guanzon on Wednesday said she already has her dissenting opinion and only waiting for the ponente of the three disqualification cases against presidential aspirant Ferdinand “BongBong” Marcos Jr. to release the ruling.
Guanzon said the document was ready last January 17, the day the ruling was supposed to be issued.
“In fact, I have a dissenting opinion, I was ready on January 17 because we raffle the disqualification cases, three are called consolidated cases and that went to a commissioner as the ponente,” she said in live streaming on Facebook.
Guanzon said the ruling was not released on January 17 and the day after as the ponente assigned it to a lawyer, who got the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), and the Commissioner who went on quarantine for being a close contact.
“Here at the Commission on Elections, we raffle the case. The ponente will write the decision. If we both agree with another member of the Commission, we will sign it,” she said.
“So that's the procedure here. So I don't insist on who will write or who will be the ponente, and it does not mean that what the ponente commissioner wrote is our decision. It’s because each of us can write a separate opinion,” she added.
She assured that all the pending cases she is handling will be decided upon this week or early next week.
“So by Friday, at the latest Monday. I promise you I have zero backlog for cases assigned to me,” added Guanzon, who is set to retire on February 2.
The other members of the First Division are Commissioners Marlon Casquejo and Aimee Ferolino.
Last week, Guanzon denied claims that they are delaying the resolution of the disqualification cases against Marcos.
“So it is not correct to say that we are delaying in order to favor one party,” she said in a Facebook live video. (PNA)
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