SC voids Comelec order allowing late substitution of Guanzon as nominee

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court has granted a petition removing retired Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rowena Guanzon from the list of nominees of the Komunidad ng Pamilya, Pasyente at Persons with Disabilities (P3PWD) party list group which secured a congressional seat in the 2022 national elections.

In a 41-page decision on G.R. Nos. 261123 and 261876, the high court nullified Comelec Minute Resolution No. 22-0774 which allowed the substitution of Guanzon, who had just retired from the poll body at the time.

The Supreme Court ordered P3PWD to submit additional nominees but prohibited the renomination of Guanzon (first nominee), as well as Rosalie Garcia (second), Cherrie Belmonte-Lim (third), Donnabel Tenorio (fourth), and Rodolfo Villar Jr. (fifth).

According to the high tribunal, the Comelec resolution was issued with grave abuse of discretion as it approved the substitution of P3PWD nominees beyond the deadline set by the poll body.

The Supreme Court also declared as permanent the temporary restraining order it issued on June 29, 2022, against Guanzon’s substitution, preventing the implementation of the Comelec resolution.

Majority vote

The poll body had approved, by a “majority vote,” the party list group’s request to withdraw the nominations of its original roster composed of Grace Yeneza, Ira Paulo Pozon, Marianne Heidi Cruz Fullon, Peter Jonas David, and Lily Grace Tiangco. It also sought to replace them with Guanzon, Garcia, Belmonte-Lim, Tenorio and Villar.

The Supreme Court, however, noted a pattern of “whimsicality and arbitrariness” in the actions of the approving commissioners regarding the substitution of P3PWD’s nominees.

“Rather than promoting free, orderly and honest elections, the Comelec en banc shamelessly allowed itself to be used as a tool in perpetuating a scheme,” the high court said in its Aug. 20 decision, penned by Associate Justice Ricardo Rosario but made public only on Wednesday.

Associate Justices Jhosep Lopez and Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, however, dissented.

In his dissenting opinion, Lopez argued that “it would be an egregious error to recognize P3PWD’s right to select its nominees and, at the same time, restrain its freedom of association by preventing the nomination of Guanzon, Garcia, Belmonte-Lim, Tenorio and Villar.”