Comelec panel: No need for Guanzon to inhibit from Duterte case

MANILA - For ''lack of merit'', the Commission on Elections (Comelec) First Division has denied a petition from the camp of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to have Commissioner Rowena Guanzon inhibit from the disqualification case against Duterte.

READ: Duterte camp blasts Comelec commissioner

Duterte's camp earlier questioned Guanzon's impartiality after several social media posts supposedly showed that Guanzon was close friends with Atty. Sheila Bazar, lawyer of anti-Duterte student JP delas Nieves.

Last December, Guanzon was the only member of the Comelec en banc who voted for the cancellation of Duterte's Certificate of Candidacy.

"Attorney Bazar is not my sorority sister. She's not a close friend," Guanzon told reporters Monday.

"In fact, she belongs to a rival sorority in the University of the Philippines."

Earlier, Guanzon wrote on her Twitter account that Bazar joined her in the Gender Justice Network "but it has been inactive for many years."

"Naturally, I have met many lawyers in the course of my work and advocacies. I also have lawyer friends who are associated with political parties or candidates. I am confident that none of them, including my classmates, expect a favorable decision from me by reason of our association," Guanzon wrote in a memorandum submitted to the First Division.

"What is important is that I will decide every case without bias, and my decision will be based on evidence and the law. It is not based on who the parties' counsel is. Wherefore, I am not inhibiting from the cases of Respondent Rodrigo Duterte."

In the order promulgated Monday, the First Division explained that the grounds invoked by Duterte's camp are voluntary and not mandatory, as Guanzon is not related up to the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity to counsel Bazar.