Guest Speaker’s Profile: COMELEC Commissioner Ma. Rowena Amelia V. Guanzon (Ret.)

Commissioner Ma. Rowena Amelia V. Guanzon was Commissioner of the Commission on Audit in 2013. Prior to her appointment as Commissioner of the Commission on Elections, she was a litigation lawyer, writer and a law professor who is well known as an expert in the field of gender equality and laws on violence against women.

Commissioner Guanzon has a degree of Master in Public Administration from Harvard University (’95) where she was an Edward Mason Fellow and Class Marshal. She graduated in the top ten of her Class in the University of the Philippines College of Law, where she received a Dean’s Medal (Rank Number 6). She has a degree in Economics from the University of the Philippines.

At twenty eight years old, she was appointed as Officer in Charge/ City Mayor in 1986 by President Corazon C Aquino upon the recommendation of Bacolod Bishop Antonio Fortich, and in 1988 was elected Mayor of Cadiz City (1988-1992). She taught Election Law, Public Officers, and Local Government in the University of the Philippines College of Law.

She is the author of a law book, The Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004. She is the lead author of Engendering the Philippine Judiciary, published by the UN Development 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. Her published articles are, “Issues and Problems in the Enforcement of the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004,” Philippine Law Journal (Dec 2008) and “Constitutional Challenges to the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004,” Journal of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (March 2009), and “The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act: Issues and Problems,” Journal of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines. Her article, “Legal and Conceptual Framework of Battered Woman Syndrome as a Defense,” is published in the Philippine Law Journal (Vol. 86, No. 1 December 2011). Her new book, The Anti-Sexual Harassment Act Notes and Cases, was published by the U.P. Law Center. She is currently writing a textbook on The Local Government Code for the University of the Philippines and The Auditing Code of the Philippines Casebook.

In 2013, Commissioner Guanzon received the American Field Service Mabuhay Award for her outstanding work in government and in the field of law. On June 21, 2014, the University of the Philippines Alumni Association gave her an award for Outstanding Alumna in Gender Equality and Women Empowerment. She also received the Outstanding Sillimanian Award from Silliman University in August 2015.