Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — In a very quick statement on Tuesday (January 12), the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc put an end to the controversy between Chairman Andres “Andy Bautista and Commissioner Rowena Guanzon.
On the same day, the chairman and all six commissioners faced the media — in a rare show of unity.
The last time the en banc came in full force was back in August, to announce the procurement of new vote-counting machines.
Obviously, the commissioners and the chairman were treating the “memo issue” with much sensitivity.
Bautista began by passing the microphone to Commissioner Arthur Lim, whom he said was the “oldest and wisest” among them.
Lim said, they were accepting Guanzon’s comment as their official reply to Sen. Grace Poe’s petition.
Poe’s petition was to overturn the poll body’s decision in the cases filed by former Senator Kit Tatad, University of the East College of Law dean Amado Valdez and De La Salle University professor Antonio Contreras.
The en banc also released a resolution bearing the signatures of all the commission members to ratify Guanzon’s comment.
Bautista earlier accused Guanzon of filing the document with the Supreme Court without the en banc’s approval. The comment was signed only by Guanzon.
With this resolution, the members of the en banc are “in a way” affixing their signatures to Guanzon’s comment.
Lim went on to say the Bautista-Guazon issued had now been settled.
“We are able to address the issues and we have. Ourselves, decided to move forward and to leave all this controversy behind us. So, all is well that ends well,” Lim said.
Guanzon was also in a jovial mood — in contrast to the heated statements she previously made against the chairman.
She declined to comment further on the matter — except for saying that it’s time to move on.
