NEWLY-appointed Election Commissioner Rowena Guanzon appealed to politicians to discipline their leaders to maintain a peaceful, orderly, and credible election in May 2016.
Guanzon met on Friday with election officers in Negros Occidental for the first time since her appointment was announced on May 4.
The Negrense lawyer declared that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is ready for another automated election in 2016.
Guanzon, a former mayor of Cadiz City, said that her appointment as Comelec commissioner is such a big honor.
However, she denied allegations that she is an ally of Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas and that her appointment is aimed to ensure Roxas’s victory in the 2016 presidential elections.
Guanzon said she is from Cadiz City and not from Roxas City, the hometown of the DILG chief, adding that even Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. could vouch for her impartiality because they were together in the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC) when she was still mayor of Cadiz.
Moreover, the election commissioner said that politicians know better about their allies and supporters, and they should be the one to discipline them.
"Let's just do (it) the Christian way," Guanzon said.
Also named commissioner was Sheriff Abas, a lawyer from Cotabato City.
Andres Bautista, chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), was appointed Comelec chairman.
Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte had said easlier that President Benigno S. Aquino III signed the appointment papers of the three new poll officials on April 28 and their seven-year term will end on February 2, 2022.
Bautista replaced Sixto Brillantes Jr. whose term expired last February 2.
Guanzon succeeded Lucenito Tagle, while Abas replaced Elias Yusoph.
Guanzon is a litigation lawyer, and an advocate against gender discrimination and violence against women.
She graduated in the top 10 of her class in the University of the Philippines and has a master's degree in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government where she was an Edward Mason Fellow and Class Marshal.