Is Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon emotional? Is Commissioner Aimee Ferolino emotional or reasonable?
What would you rather be: Emotional or reasonable? Apathetic or illogical?
In discussing about infidelity and jealousy, the common saying is that the spouse of the philandering other is the last to know. That is the reason why the song Don’t Let Me be the Last to Know is quite popular.
Data shows that in the US, 15 percent of married women, and 25 percent of married men have had extramarital affairs.
In the Philippines, the record is 2 percent and 36 percent, respectively.
Those numbers could change if we get the data solely from OFWs. The percentage could be higher as the problem of extramarital affairs is one of the more serious social costs of overseas employment.
In a Netflix study, 52 percent of their viewers in Asia have cheated on their significant other, higher than the global average of 46 percent.
The same study showed that 43 percent of the Filipino Netflix viewers are cheaters. The parameters for the study were not made available.
For this reason, jealousy could be a common feeling of Filipina wives for their husbands.
When confronted with this issue, I always reason out that no feeling is actually wrong. But that not all reasons of a certain feeling are valid or correct either.
Take the case of a wife who was overtaken by emotion, and made a scandalous act upon seeing her husband and his former girlfriend coming down the stairs of a hotel together. Jealousy was the feeling that prompted the wife to act.
Such feeling was never wrong, while the consequent act was unforgivable because as it turned out, the two just accidentally met in an official meeting among government officials in one of the function rooms in the hotel.
The feeling of jealousy was from the thought that the exes came out from a rekindled relationship in one of the hotel rooms.
The recent case in the Comelec involving Commissioner Guanzon and Commissioner Ferrolino seem to have divided the Filipinos between and among emotion, reason, and tradition.
In one of my daily posts on Facebook, I did ask: “What is more important in the latest Comelec controversy? The deportment of the Commissioners involved, or the alleged inordinate delay in the promulgation of the decision allegedly beyond the limit provided by law?
Unsa may mas bililhon ug dako nga gibug aton, ang estilo ba sa pagsulti sa mga Komisyoner, o and hisgutanan nga may dakong kalambigitan sa katawhan sa Pilipinas ug ang pagtan-aw nato sa balaod ug kamatuoran sa mga pasangil nga pagdugay-dugay sa pagpakanaug sa hukom?”
The post generated not a few comments.
The emotional had varied reactions. One said that Commissioner Guanzon is bastos and arogante.
Another said, “Taas ra kayo iyang tan-aw sa iya kaugalingon. Hambugera, nasubraan ka ngilngig!”.
“Malinaw nga die-hard supporter yan si Guanzon kay Leni Robredo,” she added.
A reactor then reminded Commissioner Guanzon that she was one of those who favored Duterte in a disqualification case before in Comelec.
One opined, “I don’t know why many are so concerned about disqualifying former Senator Marcos from the presidential race. He does not owe the BIR billions of pesos. It doesn’t matter to me on who he is but I want him to be our president.”
A co-alumnus of Guanzon also posted, “She is a joke and makaulaw sa SU”.
But other emotional comments were for Guanzon’s favor: “Let us all be proud of and support Commissioner Guanzon. That is the SillimanSpirit.”
One questioned whether “…it matters where a person graduated? A person of integrity is a person of integrity even if he is a graduate of University of San Agustin or Araullo College.” Another replied: “Anybody who maintains his integrity is giving honor to his alma mater and colleagues, as well giving glory to God.”
Commissioner Guanzon went out all guns blazing in her last few days in office in a very public showdown against fellow Commissioner Ferrolino. One noted that Ferrolino is also “matapang and not afraid because nakasandal sya sa bato.”
Another reactor said, “If you want corruption to end in this country, she [Commissioner Guanzon] is the kind of public servant that we want because unfortunately, public servants in this country who stand for what is right have become a rarity.”
The rational reactors opined that the more important issues to consider are the alleged premature release of one’s vote, and the alleged inordinate delay of the promulgation of the decision. They are also divided.
A seasoned lawyer, a certain Atty. Romy Macalintal, said that Commissioner Guanzon can be sanctioned for prematurely revealing her vote prior to the release of the poll body’s decision. “It was irregular, and Guanzon violated the confidentiality of the internal proceedings of the Comelec.”
Far Eastern University Law Dean Mel Sta. Maria Jr., however, said that Commissioner Guanzon did not commit a crime in leaking her vote versus Marcos.
Dean Sta. Maria said that Guanzon’s revelation of her vote via TV or radio will not count as “publishing” as contemplated by Art. 154 of the Revised Penal Code, adding that a “dissenting opinion” (Guanzon called it Separate Opinion) is not a document or resolution to be released by proper authority.
Professor Sta. Maria, who also teaches at the Ateneo School of Law, pointed out there is no law prohibiting the release of a dissenting opinion if a majority opinion has not yet been published. “If at all, it’s only a long-followed tradition, but not a law,” Dean Sta. Maria noted.
He added that what Commissioner Guanzon did may be imprudent but that it cannot be equated to malice because she was “motivated by a desire to serve the public as far as she is concerned, a matter of national interest”.
Others speculated a grand design to have the case decided by the Supreme Court before or after the election. By tradition, the SC may defer to the Comelec as a specialized constitutional body.
If decided after the election, granting that Marcos wins, disqualification may favor the winning vice president.
But by tradition in either scenario, the SC may reason that as a political issue, they submit to the wisdom of the voters, the sovereign people.
In the end, the taong bayan will decide. The fate of the presidential aspirants will ultimately be in our hands.
We will be voting come May 9 this year by balancing our deep-seated emotions and our well-grounded reason in a traditional Philippine political exercise.
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Author’s email: [email protected]
