VERA Files
A YouTube video claims that former Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner Rowena Guanzon has been arrested and imprisoned. This is not true.
Guanzon was only indicted by the Ombudsman but no arrest warrants have been issued against her by any court.
Uploaded on Feb. 21, several weeks after Guanzon filed a motion for reconsideration before the Ombudsman, the video’s headline read:
“KAKAPASOK LANG LAHAT NAGULAT! SAWAKAS NAHU-Ll nasi GUANZON HlNATULAN ng K0RTE MABUBUL0K sa KULU NGAN (sic)”
(Just in, everyone was shocked! Finally Guanzon was caught, judged by the court will rot in jail!”)
Guanzon was not arrested nor put in jail. No court has released a verdict on the two graft charges lodged against her by the Ombudsman.
In a July 23 resolution, the Ombudsman indicted the former Comelec commissioner for allegedly revealing confidential information related to the disqualification case against then-presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The resolution, which was only made public on Jan. 8, accused Guanzon of prematurely revealing in her interviews with GMA News and Rappler last January 2022 that she voted to disqualify Marcos over tax evasion and failure to file income tax returns.
At the time of the interviews, Guanzon was presiding officer of the Comelec’s First Division which handled Marcos’ case. The Comelec dismissed the disqualification case against Marcos in February 2022, after Guanzon’s retirement from the poll body.
(Related: Petitioners, Carpio: Comelec decision on Marcos DQ disappointing but not surprising)
Guanzon filed a motion for reconsideration before the Ombudsman on Jan. 9 and a supplemental motion on Feb. 5 for the graft charges against her.
Uploaded by YouTube channel PINAS VIRAL NEWS (created July 4, 2022) with 22,600 subscribers, the video has drawn 25,110 interactions.
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