Wen(g)a?

“Wenga” is a term used by the younger generation to express doubt over a statement, or distrust of one’s motives. It is a colloquial contraction of the phrase “hindi nga,” and the closest English translation this writer can think of is, “oh, really?”

Former Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rowena “Wena” Guanzon has lately been the subject of much mistrust as she positions herself as a vocal — nay, virulent! — defender of Vice President Duterte, aside from being a Marcos critic.

To be fair, Guanzon has always been anti-Marcos. During her stint in the Comelec, she made no bones about publicly stating her opposition to the presidential candidacy of Marcos, never mind that such constituted a prejudgment.

Not content, she tried to bully her colleagues into deciding the issue of his candidacy before she retired, so that her dissenting opinion may be made part of the records. Failing that, she launched into a verbal tirade exposing information that was supposed to be confidential, and demonized her colleagues by strongly hinting that not being well-born (unlike her), they were likely paid off. For that she got two criminal indictments, which are currently being tried in court.

Fresh from her retirement, she joined the campaign of Leni Robredo in 2022, consistently badmouthing Marcos as a crook and a college drop-out. With her partylist, the P3PWD, winning a seat in the House of Representatives, Guanzon tried to cleverly shoehorn herself into Congress by belatedly — and illegally — insinuating herself as the first nominee, only to be thwarted by the Supreme Court which saw through her ruse and TKO’d her congressional plans via a TRO.

Thereafter, Guanzon’s fortunes continued to decline. Her partylist did not qualify in the last elections. Worse, she saw her previous allies — the Pinks and Yellows — suddenly pivot towards an alliance with the Marcos administration. In an instant, she was orphaned.

What she did was to desperately try to reinvent herself. Seeing the public sentiment against Marcos, she is now repositioning herself as a champion of the Dutertes. She even strove mightily to become the VP’s spokesperson. To Guanzon’s chagrin, Sara refused to bite, realizing perhaps that it was not necessary to combat Claire Castro’s insanity with another kind of crazy from the public meltdown-prone Guanzon.

Which was just as well. Because if Guanzon thinks that Duterte supporters have forgotten that she also tried to torpedo Rodrigo Duterte’s candidacy in 2016, she has another think coming.

In fact, she was so biased that Duterte’s lawyers tried many times to recuse her from the case on Duterte’s qualifications. Even when Duterte became President, Guanzon continued her unseemly criticism of him using her position at the Comelec as a bully pulpit, violently taking him to task for every small matter, even his rape jokes. And, of course, VP Sara’s popular base will not forget that Guanzon once called Sara “Fiona.”

So, no, Wena, thanks but no thanks. The last thing the Duterte camp needs is an elitist, chameleonic person with probable Borderline Personality or Bipolar Disorder, and pending criminal cases, who has been sanctioned by the Supreme Court for “gaming” the partylist system and who has a propensity for filing nuisance suits.

With the suspicions about your intentions for orbiting around the VP, it’s game over, Wena. You should just go home. “Uwe na.”