Duterte Youth may be barred from House

After the disqualification of its first nominee, Ronald Cardema, the Duterte Youth partylist may also be barred from getting a seat in the House of Representatives.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said there is no petition yet to disqualify the group.

Guanzon said the poll body could only act on the matter if a motion for disqualification is filed.

“If there is a petition to cancel their registration, then we will meet on that. But I will not do that motu proprio,” she said.

Guanzon clarified the Duterte Youth is validly registered as a party-list group, although the Comelec has cancelled the certificate of nomination of Cardema.

Poll watchdog Kontra Daya and other critics of Cardema urged the Comelec to cancel the accreditation of Duterte Youth after the group filed a new set of nominees with Cardema and his wife, Ducielle Marie, as first and second nominees, respectively.

“This new ploy exposes the depravity of Duterte Youth and its corporate officers, and fortifies our previous position that their registration should be cancelled,” lawyer Emil Marañon said.

Kontra Daya convenor Danilo Arao said the Comelec should disqualify the Duterte Youth outright, noting the filing of its new set of nominees clearly shows the group’s intent to circumvent the law.

“Cardema and the Duterte Youth are making yet another mockery of the party-list system and another blatant circumvention of the law,” Arao said.

Guanzon said the Comelec could not initiate the move and would only act once a formal petition is filed before poll body.

She said the group could file a new set of nominees if they want, provided it would comply with the law.

“Let them do that (what they want) and we will let them see what the commission will do,” Guanzon said.

The Duterte Youth submitted the new set of nominees a day after the Comelec’s First Division cancelled Cardema’s certificate of nomination. Aside from the Cardema coupule, the new set of nominees is composed of Guillermo Villareal Jr., Krizza Reyes and Robert Garcia.

The certificate was signed by Cardema himself as the group’s president, chairperson/secretary general.

The Comelec cancelled Cardema’s CONA after he was found to have committed “material misrepresentation” on the document when he applied as the group’s substitute nominee.

The poll body found out that Cardema failed to meet the age requirement for nominees of a party-list group reprenting the youth sector.

Under the Party-List System Act, nominees of a youth sector “must at least be 25 years old, but not more than 30 on the day of elections.”

Cardema was 34 years old at the time of the elections.

Cardema’s wife was the original leading nominee of Dutere Youth before he filed his certificate of nomination and acceptance as a substitute nominee.

Guanzon yesterday asked the Partylist Coalition to take a stand on Cardema’s issue.

“Someone, Mr. Cardema, has attempted to circumvent the Partyist Act and it makes them all look bad ... That’s why some people are saying the partylist should be abolished,” Guanzon said.