So who is Rowena Guanzon, more popularly known as “Shunga” on Twitterverse?
Guanzon styles herself in the mold of the late Miriam Defensor Santiago. Apparently, there’s an obvious reason for her doing so; she served as the late Senator’s Chief of Staff.
Guanzon was born to the Honorable Sixto Guanzon, or Don Sixto Guanzon, a Regional Trial Court judge (now retired) in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental, and to the Honorable Elvira Villena Guanzon, or Doña Elvira Villena de Guanzon, a lawyer and former Cadiz City vice-mayor. She comes from a landed and affluent family in Negros, the Guanzons, who have been owners of sugar cane plantations or haciendas.
Guanzon was appointed mayor of Cadiz City, Negros Occidental in the late 1980s by the first Aquino administration after the fall of the Marcos dictatorship and the end of the martial law years. Upon completing her mandate as an appointed official, she ran for and was elected Cadiz City mayor (the same position she held as an appointee) in the 1988 Philippine Elections. She was only 28 years old at the time of her appointment.
On March 8, 2013, she was appointed commissioner to the Commission on Audit (COA).
On April 28, 2015, Guanzon was named a commissioner to the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) for a seven-year term, lasting until February 2022.
Guanzon’s published works include Issues and Problems in the Enforcement of the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004, Philippine Law Journal (Dec 2008); Constitutional Challenges to the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004, Journal of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (March 2009); The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act: Issues and Problems, Journal of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines; and Legal and Conceptual Framework of Battered Woman Syndrome as a Defense, Philippine Law Journal (Vol. 86, No. 1 December 2011).
The U.P. Law Center also published Guanzon’s book, The Anti-Sexual Harassment Act Notes and Cases in 2014. Guanzon is currently writing textbooks on The Local Government Code for the University of the Philippines and The Auditing Code of the Philippines Casebook.
Guanzon holds a master in public administration degree from Harvard University, and degrees in law and economics from the University of the Philippines. She is also a recipient of the UP Alumni Association’s outstanding alumna in gender equality and women empowerment award, and the Outstanding Sillimanian Award from Silliman University.
It’s very obvious that Guanzon is Dilawan to the bone.
Guanzon is set to retire on February. Will she go out with a bang and disqualify Ferdinand Marcos Jr., as her last act as a Commissioner? If she will be true to her Dilawan provenance, this may likely be so.
But is the opposition ready for the firestorm this would create among the most rabid Marcos supporters?
Guanzon could actually make life difficult for Marcos in his path to the Presidency. A disqualification at the division level can be appealed to the en banc. If Marcos loses at the en banc, he can go to the Supreme Court.
But this would imperil the 2022 election because of the amount of time it would take to resolve the issue unless the high court makes a decision post-haste before election day.
She has promised to rule on or before January 17. This is just two days after the start of the official printing of ballots which has been delayed from the original deadline of January 11.
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