In the Know: New elections officials

Andres Bautista

Appointed chair of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) in September 2010, Andres Bautista obtained his law degree from Ateneo de Manila University in 1990, as class valedictorian, and Master of Laws from Harvard Law School in 1993. He was previously chair and president of the Philippine Association of Law Schools, and a partner in an international law firm.

Prior to his PCGG appointment, Bautista was chief executive officer of Kuok Group Philippines and dean of Far Eastern University’s (FEU) Institute of Law. He cofounded the Master of Business Administration-Juris Doctor dual degree program of De La Salle Graduate School of Business and FEU.

In 1999, he was among the youngest members appointed by then President Joseph Estrada to the Preparatory Commission on Constitutional Reforms, which was tasked to study and propose amendments to the 1987 Constitution.

In 2003, he was a member and cochair of the committee on economic affairs of the Presidential Study Group on Constitutional Reforms. He was also a member of the Consultative Commission on Constitutional Reforms (2005) and Charter Change Advocacy Commission (2006).

Rowena Guanzon

Litigation lawyer, writer and law professor Rowena Guanzon was appointed officer in charge/mayor of Cadiz City in 1986 by then President Corazon Aquino. She was later elected Cadiz City mayor in 1988.

Guanzon obtained her law degree from the University of the Philippines College of Law and her economics degree from UP. She has a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard Kennedy School of Government where she was an Edward Mason Fellow and Class Marshal. In 2013, she was officer in charge of the Institute for the Administration of Justice in the UP Law Center, and taught election law, public officers, and local government in the UP College of Law.

She was also a commissioner of the Commission on Audit from March to December 2013.

Previously, Guanzon also served under Senators Edgardo J. Angara (acting chief of staff) and Miriam Defensor-Santiago (chief of staff), and was special assistant to Labor Secretary Leonardo A. Quisumbing. She was also a consultant on Women’s Rights to the Senate under Senate President Franklin Drilon, during which she helped in drafting the Senate Substitute Bill on the Anti-Violence against Women and Their Children Act of 2004 and the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003.

As consultant to the Senate, Guanzon was also presiding officer of the Technical Working Group on the reproductive health bill. She is also a founding member of the Asia Cause Lawyers Network, Gender Justice Network and Cedaw Watch.

Guanzon, an expert in the field of gender equality and laws on violence against women, used to write an Inquirer column, “Lucid Interval.” She is also the lead author of “Engendering the Philippine Judiciary,” published by the United Nations Fund for Women and the UP Center for Women’s Studies Foundation, and “The Davide Court: Its Contributions to Gender and Women’s Rights,” published by The Asia Foundation and the UP Center for Women’s Studies Foundation.

Lawyer Sheriff M. Abas, who hails from Cotabato City, was appointed regional legal division chief in the office of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) in 2011.

Abas, 36, obtained his law degree from Ateneo de Davao University in 2004 and passed the bar exams in 2005. He practiced law before joining the CSC regional office in Cotabato City in 2007.

He graduated with a philosophy degree in 1999 from Notre Dame University, where he was also a professor for three years until 2009.

Sources: Inquirer Archives, bingguanzon.com, law.upd.edu.ph, pcgg.gov.ph, CSC-XII, sc.gov.ph