Rowena Guanzon


Maria Rowena Villena Guanzon, is a Filipino lawyer, public servant, and politician, currently serving as Philippine Commission on Elections commissioner. She had been an audit commissioner before taking office at the Philippine Commission on Elections in February 2015 during the time of then President Benigno Aquino III.
Guanzon was mayor of Cadiz City in Negros Occidental until 1994, and also served as chief of staff to late Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, whom she still considers a role model.

Biography

Guanzon was born to the Honorable Sixto Guanzon, or Don Sixto Guanzon, a Regional Trial Court judge 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 in the 1988 Philippine Elections.
On March 8, 2013, she was appointed commissioner to the Commission on Audit.
On April 28, 2015, Guanzon was named a commissioner to the Commission on Elections for a seven-year term, lasting until February 2022.

Publications

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 ; Constitutional Challenges to the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004, Journal of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines ; 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.
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.