Comelec exec ‘runs wild’ in airport
Credit to Author: WILLIAM DEPASUPIL, TMT| Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2018 16:37:49 +0000
Commission on Elections Commissioner Rowena Guanzon was reported to have run amuck at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 last week and threatened to sue airport officials.
A source who witnessed the incident said Guanzon used the restroom reserved for persons with disabilities at the Mabuhay lounge while waiting for her flight on December. 6. Because she was inside for a long time, a Philippine Airlines attendant got worried and knocked on the door to check if everything was okay but got no answer.
Concerned, the attendant got the key and tried to open the restroom, but someone said “I’m here.”
The relieved attendant then left and went back to her post.
However, Guanzon was irked and when she got out, she confronted the first attendant that she saw.
“Do you know who I am? Don’t you know I am a government official? I am going to sue you all. Natalo na nga ako sa game, ginugulo nyo pa ako,” she fumed.
It was at this juncture that the manager on duty intervened but Guanzon reportedly continued fuming.
“Ano ba kailangan ninyo I don’t want to talk to you,” she bridled.
The manager and other PAL personnel kept their peace so as not to worsen the situation.
Guanzon, however, denied running amuck.
In a phone interview, the Comelec official said she, lawyer Lorna Kapunan and her staff, Rose Garcia, were waiting for their flight to Hong Kong when she used the restroom for PWDs.
Guanzon pointed out though that what happened as indicated in the incident report was farthest from the truth, even as she suggested that a review of the close circuit television (CCTV) be made to really get the true story behind the incident.
“I am a PWD. I was using a walking cane to travel abroad. I have a PWD card because I have osteoarthritis. The PWD CR in their Mabuhay Lounge was open [and] before using it I asked from the PAL staff of Mabuhay Lounge,” she explained.
She said that while she was inside, someone banged on the door three times, to which she answered “someone is in here.”
She said she heard a woman asking: “Why is she inside? How did she enter?”
When she went out, Guanzon said she saw a Chinese woman with two male bodyguards.
“I told her she was rude and I wanted to talk to a PAL employee,” Guanzon said. “So I asked her name, she refused to say. She asked me arrogantly for my name so I said I am Commissioner Guanzon, I am a government official. Let us talk outside [the Mabuhay Lounge],” the commissioner narrated.
Guanzon claimed that the woman refused to heed her appeal and kept on shouting until Kapunan and a PAL supervisor, a certain Vanessa, arrived and the three of them discussed what happened.
“Vanessa said, ‘Pasensiya na (Sorry), ma’am,’” Guanzon said
The Comelec official admitted having said “Natalo na nga ako sa game, ginugulo niyo pa ako” but she clarified that she was joking with Kapunan, referring to the loss of the University of the Philippines basketball team to the Ateneo de Manila University in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines championship game.
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