The Durterte Youth partly-list group’s asking the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to disallow the Komunidad ng Pamilya, Pasyente at Persons with Disabilities (P3PWD) party-list from joining next year’s midterm polls is a “baseless vengeful act”, lawyer Rowena Guanzon said on Monday, June 3.
The Duterte Youth represented by Ronald Cardema on Monday asked the Comelec to disallow the P3PWD party-list headed by Guanzon from joining the 2025 polls, saying it, failed to comply with the deadline for the filing of its Manifestation of Intent to Participate (MIP).
During her term as Commission on Elections commissioner, Guanzon, who is from Negros Occidental, questioned Cardema’s inclusion in the list of Duterte Youth’s nominees during the 2019 polls.
“Whatever more evil he does, Ronald Cardema can never be congressman of that youth sector party list because he is overaged. That is the law,” Guanzon said on Monday.
“We will answer his complaint when we receive an order from the COMELEC. In the meantime, we in P3PWD Party List continue to serve our PWD sector the elderly and their families. Our constituents are organizing P3PWD chapters nationwide. We are a genuine marginalized sector that deserves representation in Congress,” she added.
Guanzon, P3PWD first nominee, said she was proclaimed as representative of the partylist group by the Commission on Elections after the 2022 polls but was prevented by the House of Representatives secretary general from assuming her post because the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order based on a petition that is still pending.
The petition was filed by Cardema to stop the substitution of Guanzon for the P3PWD party-list.*