Ferolino’s delay on Marcos DQ cases also meant to block Casquejo’s vote —Guanzon

The delay in the release of the resolution on the disqualification cases against presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is also meant to block Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Marlon Casquejo’s vote, senior poll Commissioner Rowena Guanzon claimed Tuesday.

In an ANC interview, Guanzon said that on February 3 or a day after her retirement, she will be replaced by the most senior Comelec commissioner — Socorro Inting — as the First Division presiding officer.

Inting will also serve as the interim chairman pending President Rodrigo Duterte’s appointment of the new Comelec chairman.

Inting, who is the current presiding officer of the Comelec Second Division which junked two petitions against Marcos, will be replaced by Casquejo following the poll body’s seniority protocol.

“[Casquejo] will be presiding the Second Division. So he will not be able to vote on this case,” Guanzon said.

In a tweet, Guanzon said the “intention” of Comelec Commissioner Aimee Ferolino, the assigned ponente on the consolidated disqualification cases against Marcos, is to “make sure that Commissioner Casquejo and I cannot vote.”

“If this is not intentional, I don’t know what is,” Guanzon said.

“So by not releasing her ponencia [resolution], [Ferolino] is preventing me and Commissioner Casquejo from voting on [the] Marcos [DQ] case,” she further asserted.

For disqualification?

In the same television interview, Guanzon said "maybe they suspect” that Casquejo will also vote for Marcos’ disqualification.

“That’s why I have to come out to the public and inform the people of what’s happening in Comelec because there is interference and they are using Ferolino as their soldier,”  she said.

When a presiding commissioner retires, Guanzon explained that the resolution needs to be rewritten for the signature of the incoming presiding commissioner.

“So they knew the presiding commissioner will vote because there was no decision as of the time of my retirement,” Guanzon said.

The outgoing Comelec First Division presiding officer said she will ask Inting to let her separate opinion remain in the poll body’s records so that it could go up to the Supreme Court.

“I think she will allow that being a former justice of the Court of Appeals, because… the clerk already received that (separate opinion) in the past few days and all the other commissioners have the copy,” she said.

“That’s the best that I can ask now to the incoming commissioner but I do not know if the incoming commissioner will say that my vote should be counted. I do not know,” she added.

Last week, Guanzon disclosed that she voted for the disqualification of Marcos, a move that she was forced to do as she noticed an “unreasonable delay” in the promulgation of the decision on the consolidated disqualification petitions in the First Division.

She claimed that the reason behind the delay were efforts to influence Ferolino.

Guanzon is the presiding officer and the most senior poll commissioner in the Comelec First Division.

Ferolino, however, accused Guanzon of trying to influence her decision on the said cases.

In a memorandum addressed to Guanzon Monday, Ferolino further accused the senior poll commissioner of conditioning the mind of the public, maintaining that there was no delay in the resolution of the disqualification cases against Marcos.

Guanzon had already released her separate opinion where she voted for Marcos’ disqualification as she believes that the non-filing of income tax returns for four consecutive years constitutes moral turpitude.

Under Section 12 of the Omnibus Election Code (OEC), “Any person who has been declared by competent authority insane or incompetent, or has been sentenced by final judgment for subversion, insurrection, rebellion or for any offense for which he has been sentenced to a penalty of more than eighteen months or for a crime involving moral turpitude, shall be disqualified to be a candidate and to hold any office, unless he has been given plenary pardon or granted amnesty.”

“This disqualifications to be a candidate herein provided shall be deemed removed upon the declaration by competent authority that said insanity or incompetence had been removed or after the expiration of a period of five years from his service of sentence, unless within the same period he again becomes disqualified,” Section 12 of OEC further states.—AOL, GMA News