Duterte camp asks Guanzon to inhibit from hearing his DQ cases

Presidential candidate Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has asked Comelec commissioner Rowena Guanzon to recuse herself from the First Division's deliberations on the disqualification suits filed against him.

In a 17-page Motion for Inhibition filed by Duterte's lawyers, Duterte asked Guanzon to inihibit from the disqualification cases because of an alleged bias against the local chief executive.

“All the foregoing considered and to prevent Respondent Duterte from harbouring in the back of his mind any thought that the scale of justice has been filed against him, Respondent Duterte is left with no other recourse but to ask that Commissioner Guanzon inhibits or disqualifies herself from the pending petitions,” the motion read.

“Wherefore, Respondent Duterte respectfully prays that Honorable Commissioner Guanzon inhibit herself from participating in any hearing of this petition pending resolution of this motion; and inhibit herself from further participating in the resolution of the pending petition," it added.

Duterte's camp believes that Guanzon showed bias against him when she became the lone dissenter in the Comelec en banc’s decision on December 17 to accept Duterte's certificate of candidacy for president without prejudice to the pending disqualification cases against him.

“Respondent Duterte was shocked by Commissioner Guanzon’s dissent mainly for the following reasons: a cursory reading of the Petition filed by Castor shows that it does not contain any of the allegations mentioned by Commissioner Guanzon in her dissent; said allegations were never raised as material issues during the December 18 hearing conducted by the Comelec First Division on said Petition; and at the time Resolution No. 10028 was promulgated, no Petition was filed against Respondent Duterte raising said issues,” the motion read.

“Respondent Duterte humbly submits that Commissioner Guanzon, consistent with due process and fair play, should have refrained from making any adverse conclusions with respect to the election documents of a candidate without first seeing and reading an actual petition raising such allegations and issues,” it added.

Duterte’s camp also cited Guanzon's close association with the lawyer of one of the petitioners against him, UP Diliman student council chairman JP Delas Nieves.

The motion said Delas Nieves' lawyer Attorney Sheila Bazar and Guanzon were both members and founders of the Gender Justice Network, an organization of lawyers and law students involved in gender issues.

“Respondent finds alarming Commissioner Guanzon’s association with Attorney Maria Sheila Bazar, the lawyer of petitioner Delas Nieves,” the motion said.

'Personal ties don't matter'

During the preliminary hearing on Tuesday, Guanzon said she doesn't allow personal relationships affect how she handles cases brought before her.

Guanzon said that even when she was "almost like a personal friend" of former Sen. Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel Jr., founder of PDP-Laban, after she was appointed mayor of Cadiz in 1986, such friendships do not get in the way of her decisions.

"Regardless of my friendships with some politicians, this is the way I conduct my hearings because I have to ask questions. If you're taking it against a commissioner, you better be sure you can support it," Guanzon told Duterte's lawyer Vitaliano Aguirre.

Aguirre earlier told the First Division that the Duterte camp planned to move for Guanzon to inhibit from the disqualification cases.

On the motion, Guanzon told Aguirre, "I will read it and certainly will write my opinion."

Four disqualification cases were filed against Duterte by Delas Nieves, broadcaster Ruben Castor, Rizalito David, and lawyer Eli Pamatong.

The petitioners claimed that Duterte had no bona fide candidate to substitute since the certificate of candidacy for president of erstwhile candidate Martin Dino was materially defective and, therefore, invalid. —with a report from Rose-An Jessica Dioquino/NB, GMA News