COMELEC COMMISSIONER GUANZON: THE REFEREE WHO BLEW THE WHISTLE

Crunch time: last two minutes of the game. The shot clock sets off. All at once, referee Guanzon blows her whistle and calls a backcourt violation -- delaying the ball in bringing it from the backcourt into the frontcourt within the allotted time of eight seconds. In the same breath, Referee Ferolino, spotting the team coach on the bench signaling a "T" with his hands, calls instead for a timeout, countering referee Guanzon's call.

As a basketball player in college, a long time ago, I look at the COMELEC impasse now like a basketball game standoff as I described above. On the other hand, a legal luminary may see in his mind a different picture: a white clean bond paper with a black dot on it -- the paper is the legal sublimity; the dot, Guanzon's pugnacity. In reality, however, the paper is neither white nor clean – it is recycled – soiled and crumpled.

Exhibit A.

"The quo warranto petition [against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno] is fatally flawed... while evoking a seemingly novel approach, in truth applies a disingenuous reading that can only be deemed legitimate if the text of the Constitution is to be deliberately twisted. This is a dangerous precedent." (Integrated Bar of the Philippines)

Exhibit B.

An 80-year-old was jailed for "stealing" mangoes while that dictator Marcos Sr.'s widow Imelda Marcos has never seen the inside of a jail cell despite being convicted of graft on seven counts.

Exhibit C.

And who has been mouthing the pure and neat legalities at BBM's side of this COMELEC impasse? Larry Gadon: suspended by the Supreme Court with a pending disbarment trial due to his "atrocious and beastly behavior" he showed in his video hurling the foulest verbal attack against a female journalist.

THE ROAD TAKEN

"The facts are undisputed.

"I vote to GRANT the Petitions for Disqualification and declare Respondent FERDINAND R. MARCOS II DISQUALIFIED from running for the position of the President of the Philippines."

The alpha and omega statements above are the crux of the 24-page unflinching decision of Commissioner Guanzon on Marcos Jr.'s DQ case. Forced to contend with the mammoth Marcos Jr.'s resources in thwarting this case, Commissioner Guanzon made such a crucial decision at the end of her notable career. So tough such a decision that both sides of the local political aisle have stood in awe about her moral fiber in light of the uncharted path she would tread after her retirement.

I don't know Commissioner Guanzon as a person, more so, her character. But we may get a load of the kind of stuff she is made of inside her through the life of other women who came up against much the same predicament.

THE "BOMBSHELL" MADE HER ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL WOMEN

The "bombshell" was the revelation accusing FB of putting "astronomical profits before people". "Her" is now the famed whistle-blower Frances Haugen whose notorious release of internal FB documents – the so-called FB Papers -- has taken on a near-$1Trillion company with its legion of lawyers and advisers. She revealed:

"I did what I thought was necessary to save lives of people, especially in the global south, who I think are being endangered by FB's prioritization of profits over people. If I hadn't brought those documents forward that was never going to come to light.

"I am really lucky that my mother is an episcopal priest. I lived with her for six months last year and I had such profound distress because I was seeing these things inside of FB and I was certain it was not going to be fixed inside of Facebook."

The European Commission VP for values and transparency said, "We as regulators would not be able to convince the people that the regulation is needed were it not for whistle-blowers like Haugen." 

HER TESTIMONY CHANGED AMERICA

Adapted from Time Magazine’s cover of her, “Her” in the above banner was Dr. Christine Blasey Ford who, a few years ago, alleged that US Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her in High School some 36 years in the past. Her testimony’s significance: the hopes and fears of women and men who have lived with the same trauma of sexual violence. The impact: a signal emitted to countless silent survivors’ willingness to come into open by the way she was treated during her testimony in the halls of power which she started with this opening line:

“I am here today not because I want to be. I am terrified. I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me…”

To the bitter end, nominee Judge Kavanaugh prevailed over her testimony and ultimately joined the US Supreme Court justices. Consequently, her family driven out of their home and bullied by death threats, Dr. Blasey raised this soul-stirring question, “Why suffer through annihilation if it’s not going to matter?” She answered her question:

“I simply thought that it was my duty as a citizen and that anyone in my position would do the same thing… [E]veryone has the power to inspire others. Be courageous, stand strong, be yourself.”

Against all odds, Dr. Blasey chose to speak up – a class of moral courage that is rare, yet so badly needed today.

SHE DIDN’T WANT TO REMAIN SILENT IN THE FACE OF THE UNTRUTH

She was one of the American famed whistle-blowers: Bunny Greenhouse. Not to remain silent in the face of the untruth was what she learned from her six-grader mother. Her heroic feat built a chapter in the book “Your America: Democracy’s Local Heroes," as excerpted below:

“Let’s say you work for a gigantic institution… Bit by bit you advance in your career. You make a comfortable salary, and you’re building a retirement nest egg. Then comes the day that you discover something terribly wrong is going on. Do you make a big stink and endanger your job? Or do you just look the other way, knowing that the organization will resist any change and that if you speak out, you’ll likely end up as road-kill?”

The dilemma above spurred Greenhouse to become a whistle-blower and transformed from within a US government bureaucracy with over 35,000 employees. The book narrated:

“Greenhouse is a deeply religious person, active in the church since Sunday school. And almost forty years ago, she says she received a personal calling. She can’t explain it in logical terms. She came to know, she says, that God had a purpose for her. She was to be ‘fisher of men’… Then, at a terrible time in her life… Greenhouse realized her time to become a ‘fisher of men’ had arrived.”

That appointed time arrived when she became one of the US famous whistle-blowers.

It is noteworthy that I haven’t taken in any local role model in my discussion. Though local brave heroes abound, I am also sensible to the drift of what Jesus said: “A prophet is always treated with honor except in his hometown and in his own home.”

POINTS TO PONDER

Will Commissioner Guanzon’s pugnacity, like FB whistle-blower Frances Haugen’s notoriety, convince people that “change” is needed?

Does Commissioner Guanzon’s whistle-blowing, like star witness Dr. Christine Blasey’s testimony, not going to matter?

Will Commissioner Guanzon’s dissent, like whistle-blower Bunny Greenhouse’s calling, transform COMELEC from within?

            Today, I have no answers to the above vital questions. The impasse requires an “instant replay” (“Anyare?”) just like in basketball in cases of missed calls by referees that could change the outcome of the game. What I have in mind now is the reassuring gist of Manila Standard Elizabeth Angsioco’s column: “The ending of this issue should see the good triumph over evil.”