Rody no frontman for Cardema
Why does he have to drag the Palace into it?
Malacañang on Monday said it will not proxy for Ronald Cardema’s fight for his partylist slot in Congress.
The Palace also called out the former National Youth Commission (NYC) chairman for using President Rodrigo Duterte’s name in what is now a full-blown social media squabble between him and Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rowena Guanzon.
Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo reiterated that there is no reason for the Chief Executive to step in, or even iron out the issue on behalf of Cardema, whose Duterte Youth partylist group is on the verge of possible disqualification.
“First of all, we don’t care about what he is doing. We will not intrude into anything that does not concern the Palace,” Panelo said.
Cardema accused Guanzon of demanding political favors from him. This, he said, was required by the Comelec official for him to sit as a representative of the Duterte Youth in the 18th Congress.
The former Philippine Military Academy (PMA) student also alleged Guanzon had asked him money for the congressional slot.
Guanzon, meanwhile, earlier alleged that Cardema’s camp had sent her threats if the poll body will not rule in favor of his appeal.
Cardema had often invoked the President’s name in his dealings, something that did not sit well with the Palace. “If he has corruption allegations, then he should just file a case,” Panelo said.
“Why does he have to drag the Palace into it? We will not intrude in anything that does not concern the Palace. That’s between him and Commissioner Guanzon,” he expressed.
“Even if you are a supporter of the President, when you do something wrong in the administration, we will just let you be,” he further said.
The Comelec has deemed the 34-year-old Cardema ineligible to sit in Congress as the top nominee of Duterte Youth.
Under the law on the partylist system, youth representatives should be at least 25 to 30 years old.
Cardema, according to the Comelec, is “too old” to be representing the youth sector.
The disenfranchised nominee, however, twitted the Comelec by saying he does not represent the youth but young urban professionals. The poll body then asked him about his present profession, to which he answered none but his recent appointment as NYC chairman.
Cardema, however, said he will consider filing an impeachment charge against Guanzon.
“If I will get help, I will file an impeachment complaint against her,” he said. “We have talked to several quarters which claimed to have been her victims, too.”
“(Guanzon) can be charged for that. We will sue (her) for extorting from us,” Cardema added.
Guanzon’s camp said the poll official will file a charge of libel against Cardema soon after his issue with the Comelec is settled. She said she will wait so that he will not have a reason to call for her inhibition from the present case with the Comelec.
First of all, we don’t care about what he is doing.
Even if you are a supporter of the President, when you do something wrong in the administration, we will just let you be.
Meanwhile, the Elections commissioner yesterday slammed a television network for allegedly being “unfair” by constantly airing Cardema’s interviews against her.
In a tweet, she pointed out that ABS-CBN never asked for her side despite giving Cardema airtime.
“BTW did you notice that ABSCBN interviews Cardema every day and never once aired my side?” Guanzon posted on Twitter.
She also challenged Cardema to make public their statement of assets, liabilities and net worth, so that she can disprove his extortion claim.
ABS-CBN journalist Christian Esguerra denied Guanzon’s accusation, saying he aired his interview with the commissioner.
“Commissioner Guanzon was my guest last Thursday in a 25-minute interview on ‘Early Edition.’ We also did stories from that interview on the Cardema case. Also tried to get her side yesterday for this morning’s Cardema interview. But she declined,” Esguerra said.
We will not intrude into anything that does not concern the Palace.
“My Viber conversation with Commissioner Guanzon yesterday clearly showed she declined to be interviewed during the ‘Matters of Fact’ episode this morning with Cardema. Time of refusal: 7:36 a.m.,” he noted.
Guanzon, however, clarified the issue, saying that she did not refuse to be interviewed, but refused to be interviewed “with Cardema.”
“That is not true. I said I refuse to be interviewed WITH Cardema. Why should I honor that overaged name dropper?” she said.
She noted that CNN Philippines also tried to have both Cardema and her in a segment, which she openly denounced.
“CNN did the same thing. (They) didn’t ask my permission, but it turned out I was going to be interviewed side by side with Cardema and I have to wait for him to finish his accusations before I can talk? hahahaha CNN Philippines you forgot I am a Commissioner. He is
nothing,” she stressed.