Comelec upholds decision to cancel registration of Duterte Youth party-list
The Commission on Elections has upheld its June ruling to cancel the registration of the Duterte Youth party-list.
In a resolution on Friday, Aug. 29, the Comelec en banc canceled the Duterte Youth's motion for reconsideration with a vote of 5-1-1.
Comelec Commissioner George Garcia, however, told reporters in Zamboanga that the decision isn't final and executory yet as the party-list may still file an appeal before the Supreme Court.
In June, Garcia said the cancellation happened with a vote of 2 to 1.
A petition was filed to cancel Duterte Youth's registration due to its alleged failure to submit accreditation requirements.
Last March, Kabataan Party-list filed an urgent motion asking Comelec to resolve the petition seeking to cancel Duterte Youth's party-list registration and/or declare the nullity of its registration.
The group argued that Duterte Youth was dishonest about the ages of their nominees.
Section 9 of Republic Act No. 7491, or the Party-list System Act, states that a nominee of the youth sector must be at least 25 but not more than 30 on election day. Those who would reach 30 during their term shall be allowed to continue until it ends.
Duterte Youth's top nominees and their supposed ages are Drixie Cardema, 28; Berlin Lingwa, 26; and Ron Bawalan, 26.
Duterte Youth also underwent an investigation as the family name of its first nominee is actually Suarez. She's the sister of Ducielle Cardema, the wife of the party-list's chairman, Ronald Cardema, whom Comelec had disqualified as a party-list representative during the 2019 elections, as he was already 34 at the time.
On May 19, Comelec suspended the proclamation of Duterte Youth alongside Bagong Henerasyon due to their pending disqualification cases. On May 23, the Comelec First Division junked the disqualification case against BH, saying the petitioner, lawyer Russel Stanley Geronimo, failed to submit pertinent documents to support his petition.
Duterte Youth was among the top three party-lists of the 20th Congress. Like Akbayan and Tingog, it's supposed to have three seats in the 20th Congress.
The next three party-lists—4PS, ACT-CIS, and Ako Bicol—have two seats each, while those in the 7th to 54th spots were given one seat each.
Party-lists that got at least 2% of the votes are guaranteed one seat from the 63 available seats, with additional seats depending on more votes. Groups can only have a maximum of three seats each. If there are still available seats from the 63 slots, they will be distributed to the remaining top groups.
According to the 1987 Constitution, members of the House of Representatives can serve three-year terms up to three consecutive times only.
