MANILA — The Supreme Court has required former Comelec commissioner and current P3PWD Party-List Rep. Rowena Guanzon to explain her public statements regarding a petition against her substitution as party-list representative.

“Acting on reports bringing to the Court’s attention several public appearances of respondent Ma. Rowena Amelia V. Guanzon, the Court resolved to require her to show cause, within a non-extendible period of ten (10) days from receipt hereof, why she should not be held in contempt for violation of the sub judice rule,” read the resolution dated July 19, signed by SC’s clerk of court Marife Lomibao-Cuevas.

Among Guanzon's public appearances cited by the Supreme Court as basis for the show cause order are her interviews with the media outside the Office of the Ombudsman on June 28 which were livestreamed on her Facebook page and her June 24 interview on ANC Headstart.

On both occasions, Guanzon discussed the details of the pending petition filed by the Duterte Youth Party-list, its chairperson Ronald Cardema and its representative Ducielle Cardema, challenging the Comelec’s decision to allow her to substitute for P3PWD Party-List nominees who have since resigned from their posts.

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The high court, in the last week of June, issued a temporary restraining order preventing Guanzon from assuming office but she had already taken her oath as party-list solon by then.

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Guanzon raised this in her comment to the petition, among other grounds, arguing that since she is already a sitting member of the House of Representatives, all cases contesting her victory should go to the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET).

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In the same filing, Guanzon asked the high court to lift the TRO against her assumption into office.

But the Supreme Court merely took note of her comment and motion in the July 19 resolution.

In a message to ABS-CBN News, Guanzon said she has yet to receive both the TRO and the show cause order of the high court.

She insisted that it is Cardema who should be cited for contempt, not her.

“Cardema gave a presscon in Pandesal Forum with his lawyer Topacio two times after he filed a petition. It is he who should be held in contempt of court,” she said.

Guanzon had figured in several verbal tussles with Cardema dating back to the time when Guanzon was still a Comelec commissioner who opposed Cardema’s substitution as Duterte Party-List representative since he was by then overaged to be considered a youth representative.

But Cardema was eventually allowed to make the substitution.

The Comelec, in greenlighting Guanzon’s substitution, cited the ruling in Cardema’s case.

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