By Leslie Ann Aquino Commission on Elections Commissioner Rowena Guanzon believes losing partylist nominees should be included in the one-year appointment ban. Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Commissioner Rowena Guanzon (Photo from Rowena V. Guanzon / Facebook page/ MANILA BULLETIN) The poll official actually plans to propose this to lawmakers. "I am appearing in the Committee of Sen. Imee (Marcos). I will propose ban should cover Party-List nominees," Guanzon said in her Twitter account @commrguanzon. "They should not be a favored class because they are not a protected class," she added. She also advised one of her Twitter followers to write the senator to amend the Party List Act since there will be a hearing of the Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms and People's Participation next week. A number of groups and individuals earlier questioned the appointment of Mocha Uson as Deputy Administrator of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration since she was a nominee of losing party-list group, AA Kasosyo, during the May 2019 midterm polls. Comelec spokesman James Jimenez, however, said that partylist nominees are not covered by the ban. "Partylist nominees aren't candidates per se. So the rule doesn't apply to them," he said. In Minute Resolution No. 19-0677, the Comelec en banc said: the one-year prohibition from being appointed to a government position is not applicable to nominees of losing party-list groups as the nominees are not the candidates but rather the party-list itself. Kontra Daya earlier said it is high time for the Senate and the House of Representatives to expand the one-year ban on government appointments to losing party-list nominees, particularly the first, second and third nominees. "This is one way for legislators to prove that they are not spineless puppets of Malacañang Palace," said the group in a statement. While it may be argued that the party-list system provides for the election of party-list groups (not individuals), Kontra Daya said it is better also for those in power to exercise prudence in giving out appointments to its favored individuals clearly rejected by the voters.