Disqualification case on Bongbong Marcos

Leading up to the election, an issue has been brought up about one of the presidential aspirants, specifically Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The commissioner in the Commission on Elections, Rowena Guanzon, openly revealed her vote to disqualify none other than Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the presidential race way back on January 27, exactly 6 days before her retirement.

Ferdinand Marcos Jr. or commonly known as “Bongbong” has been on the radar of the Comelec since he announced his bid for the presidency. The case? Bongbong has been accused of moral turpitude for his failure to file his Income Task Returns for 1982 to 1985 back when Bongbong was the governor and vice governor of Ilocos Norte. 

Several petitioners like the Akbayan Citizen’s Party have asked for the investigation of Bongbong in this regard and as such, the Comelec dug deeper into this issue. An analysis was made and the Marcos camp showed a receipt for 67,000 pesos which was said to be certified by the Bureau of Internal Revenue. However, Guanzon said that the receipt the Marcos camp showed them was payment for “Lease rentals” and didn’t show any certified copy.

That didn’t sit well with Rowena Guanzon. However, she was about to retire on February 2 before this whole issue would see its resolve, and so she leaked her vote prematurely to the public so that even after she retires, her vote would be counted. She also said that it was her duty to tell the Filipino people that she finished every case or task while serving the Comelec, “Zero backlog ako except for this case yun nga kasi ayaw nga ilabas yung resolution hino-hostage ni commissioner Ferolino.”

The decision or ruling to disqualify Bongbong has been delayed. Guanzon speculated that conspiracy and foul play were happening, referring to her fellow commissioner Aimee Ferolino who was in charge of writing the ruling on the petition. When asked about this, Ferolino said she was just trying to avoid mistakes in writing the decision for the case. Guanzon also speculated that an influential senator might be behind all of this delay for the release of the resolution for Bongbong’s bid for the presidency.

Due to this, it remains a question as to how Guanzon’s vote weighs on the resolution of the petition since the ruling on the case has yet to be released. Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said that Guanzon’s vote will be on records of the Comelec, but it is unclear if her opinion will be part of the records of the case. Guanzon was set to retire on February 2, Jimenez said that if by then, the decision has not been released, then Guanzon’s vote will not be counted.

So what will happen now?

Because the decision is pending, this has been a pending case overall and thus, Bongbong can still campaign and run for the presidency. Several outcomes will happen if Bongbong is proven guilty of the charges. For one, if he is proven guilty and disqualified after the voting, the votes to his name will not be tallied. Two, if he did win the seat of the presidency but gets disqualified after, he will immediately be removed from office and then the Vice president will take his place.

In the recent polls by Pulse Asia, Bongbong is sitting at a huge margin of a 44-point lead against other presidential aspirants making him the frontrunner. Other petitioners vowed to appeal to the Supreme court with regards to his Certificate of candidacy cancellation but were ultimately rejected by the election body.

It has been 2 months since Rowena Guanzon retired, serving the Comelec for 7 years. She said that this case was simple, every piece of evidence points to Bongbong to be disqualified, all the admissions were in the transcripts, cross-examining of other papers were not needed since everything was proven in the hearing, and yet we still see the delays. “Napulitika,” Guanzon commented for this whole case. And it’s true, definitely shady things have been happening right under our noses, and shreds of evidence point exactly to that.

Guanzon isn’t keeping quiet even after she retired on February 2 last Wednesday. She believes that this whole case calls for a reformation of the Comelec’s internal rules,

“In the qualifications for commissioner, I think the bar should be raised higher. That will require constitutional amendments. Qualifications should include a certain number of years of law practice in courts,” she said.

How about you? do you think Marcos should be disqualified?