Guanzon wants party-list nominees covered by 1-year appointment ban

Elections Commissioner Rowena Guanzon expressed intention to include party-list nominees in the one-year appointment ban after Mocha Uson was recently appointed as deputy administrator of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.

"I am appearing in the Committee of Sen. Imee [Marcos]. [I] will propose ban should cover Party-List nominees," Guanzon said in a tweet on Thursday.

"And party-list to put up bond. If nominee is DQ (disqualified), forfeit their bond," she added.

Guanzon also retweeted another social media post quoting her as saying: "They should not be a favored class because they are not a protected class."

Commission on Elections spokesperson James Jimenez had previously said that the ban does not apply to Uson.

“She is not covered. Party-list nominees are not candidates per se and so, the rule does not apply to them,” Jimenez said.

Party-list group AA-Kasosyo, of which Uson was a nominee, failed to secure a seat in the House of Representatives in the May 2019 elections. — MDM, GMA News