Rowena Guanzon Wants a Senate Seat in 2028
ROWENA GUANZON – The former Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner announced that she plans to run for senator in the 2028 national elections.
She made the announcement during the launch of the Cebu Alliance for Duterte 2028 event held in Cebu City on March 13. During the gathering, Guanzon shared that one of her main goals is to represent the people of the Visayas in the Senate. She pointed out that it has been around four decades since Cebu last had a senator and expressed her intention to help bring that representation back.
Guanzon’s announcement also brought renewed attention to her recent political journey. She was previously proclaimed as the first nominee of the P3PWD Party-list, which represents families, patients, and persons with disabilities, for the 19th Congress. The party-list won one seat in the House of Representatives after receiving more than 391,000 votes in the 2022 elections. However, the Supreme Court of the Philippines later invalidated Guanzon’s nomination because her substitution as nominee happened only after the election period, which was considered outside the allowed timeframe.
Meanwhile, Rowena Guanzon is a lawyer, public servant, and politician from Cadiz City, Negros Occidental. She studied economics and law at University of the Philippines Diliman and later earned a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University. In 1986, after the People Power Revolution, she was appointed mayor of Cadiz at age 28, becoming one of the youngest mayors in the Philippines. She later won the position through election and served until 1992.
Guanzon also taught law at the University of the Philippines and later served as commissioner of the Commission on Audit in 2013. In 2015, she became a commissioner of the Commission on Elections, serving until 2022. She has remained active in politics and public discussions, particularly on election-related issues.