In the recent tweets of Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rowena Guanzon on Thursday, Jan. 27, she continued to assert that she cannot be bought, threatened, nor seduced in her decision on the disqualification case filed against presidential aspirant Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr..
The looming release of the resolution has been surrounded by much speculation on social media which forced Guanzon go live on Facebook on Wednesday, Jan.26 to dispel rumors that she was bribed or coerced in making her vote on the case.
On Thursday (Jan. 27), she remained firm on her previous statements and called out unknown entities to which she tweeted: "do NOT influence the commissioners. And do not try to buy me, threaten me or seduce me."
She then replied to a question and mentioned that will release her separate opinion soon "no matter what the ponente does." Guanzon mentioned that she wants to retire with a zero backlog of cases and agreed that it will be "messy" if the case does not get promulgated before Feb. 2. She also never gave a hint as to who she was referring to in her tweets.
"Yes , it will be a mess. Whoever is interfering in the cases should know that theu are not helping anyone. It is best that the cases o up to thr Supreme Ct as soon as possible," she said.
Guanzon who is part of the Comelec First Division handling the disqualification case of Marcos Jr., said that she was already prepared on Jan. 17 and has even finished her separate opinion on the case. This was the same day that the Second Division junked the petition to cancel the Certificate of Candidacy (COC) of Marcos Jr.
However, the ponente or another commissioner who was tasked to write the decision was not ready after one of his or her lawyers tested positive for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Now that the ponente is out of quarantine, Guanzon asked the public to give the commissioner a few more days to finalize the decision.
Three consolidated cases are being handled by the Comelec First Division. These were filed by Abubakar Mangelen, Akbayan and Bonifacio Ilagan et al.
Mangelen's disqualification case against Marcos Jr. was filed on ground of ineligibility arising from a previous conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude.
Akbayan filed on Dec. 2 a disqualification case against Marcos Jr. and averred that he is "perpetually" barred from running for public office due to his 1995 tax evasion conviction. The respondents also stated that Marcos Jr. was convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude and was sentenced to a penalty of imprisonment of more than 18 months.
The first disqualification case against Marcos Jr. was filed on Nov. 17, 2021 by Bonifacio Ilagan et al. who cited similar points with Akbayan during the preliminary conference on Jan. 7.