Mocha should be covered by 1-year ban—Guanzon

Elections Commissioner Rowena Guanzon on Thursday said she will propose that nominees of losing party-list groups, like other political candidates, be banned from being appointed to public office for one year after elections.

“I am appearing in the Committee of Sen. Imee (Marcos). I will propose (that the) ban should cover party-list nominees,” Guanzon said in her Twitter account, @commrguanzon.

Guanzon’s pronouncement was prompted by Malacañang’s widely criticized appointment of former Assistant Communications Secretary Mocha Uson as a deputy administrator of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa).

Uson was the first nominee of the party list group AA-Kasosyo that lost in the May 2019 election.

Guanzon maintained that unsuccessful party list nominees should be treated like other losing candidates who are covered by a yearlong ban on being appointed to political office.

“They should not be a favored class because they are not a protected class,” Guanzon said.

Commission on Elections spokesperson James Jimenez earlier said the one-year ban on political appointees does not apply to Uson because she was not a “candidate per se.”

The Senate committee on electoral reforms and people’s participation will hold its hearing on Tuesday.