Marital spat throws Philippine elections into question

Ben Kritz
Ben Kritz
Aug 9, 2017 · 3 min read

An ongoing marital dispute between the head of the Philippines’ Commission on Elections (Comelec) and his estranged wife has thrown the results of the country’s 2016 elections into doubt, after the wife alleged her husband had nearly one billion pesos ($20 million) hidden in bank accounts in the Philippines and abroad.

The titillating revelations pushed news of the visit of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson from the headlines on Monday, as Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista and his wife Patricia Paz-Bautista took to the airwaves to hurl accusations at one another.

She said, he said

Mrs. Bautista filed an affidavit and presented bank records to the National Bureau of Investigation, purporting to show that the election chief had undisclosed deposits in several banks in the Philippines and Hong Kong. She also alleged that Bautista owned two properties that he had not disclosed to the government, including one in San Francisco, California, and had stopped providing financial support for her and the couple’s four children. She also accused Bautista of having hidden investments in several offshore companies.

Although she did not openly accuse Bautista of taking bribes in connection with his job, she alleged that he had been taking “commissions” from a law firm that represents government clients.

Comelec Chairman Andy Bautista, aspiring to higher office (Photo: Official Twitter account)

Chairman Bautista, on the other hand, vehemently denied any wrongdoing and said that the couple had split in November 2016 as a result of his wife’s having an affair. The allegations, he claimed, were part of an attempt to extort money from him, after he refused to pay a 620 million peso ($12.4 million) settlement his wife had demanded.

The squabble between the Bautistas evidently alarmed President Rodrigo Duterte so much that he summoned the couple to his office on Sunday in an attempt to mediate the dispute. He has since publicly said he would not ask Bautista to resign, but would not interfere with any investigation into allegations of hidden wealth.

Potential consequences

The matter is potentially serious despite its soap opera-like appearance because supporters of the Duterte administration have accused Bautista of helping to rig last year’s national elections in favor of several candidates from the opposition Liberal Party. Former President Benigno Aquino 3rd, a leader of the Liberal Party, appointed Bautista to head the Comelec in April 2015.

The most serious charge is that Bautista authorized a software change to the vote-counting system in the midst of canvassing after the elections in May 2016. The alteration of the system allegedly resulted in transferring votes from vice-presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. — the son of the Philippines’ former dictator — to the eventual winner, Liberal Party candidate Leni Robredo. Bautista has repeatedly said the software change was merely cosmetic, and had no effect on the election results.

Unlike the US, the president and vice president are elected individually, often resulting in the nation’s top two elected officials being political rivals. Duterte, who openly favors Marcos, has banned Robredo from attending Cabinet meetings, and removed her from her position as head of the country’s housing coordinating council. Marcos has also filed a formal electoral protest, which raises the possibility of the vice president being removed from office.

Even if Bautista’s previously undisclosed assets are not connected in any way to his job as head of the Comelec, “hidden wealth” is still considered a grave offense in the Philippines. The Philippine Star reported on Tuesday that Bautista’s reported assets as of December 2016 were just over 176 million pesos, far less than what Patricia Paz-Bautista claimed he actually had.

Nearly all government officials in the Philippines are required by law to publicly disclose their assets, ostensibly to prevent corruption. The Chief Justice of the country’s Supreme Court was impeached and removed from office for misreporting his assets in 2012.

After Mrs. Bautista’s allegations became public Monday, the Justice Secretary ordered a full investigation, and several senators called for a legislative inquiry. Although the chairman is appointed by the president, the Comelec is one of a handful of so-called “constitutional offices,” whose head can only be removed before his term expires through impeachment or resignation.

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