PARTY-LIST BID | Ex-Comelec official takes oath as P3PWD representative, opposition to her bid denied

June 23, 2022 , 07:52 PM

(June 23, 2022) – A former Commission on Elections (Comelec) official on Thursday took her oath as the lone representative of the Komunidad ng Pamilya, Pasyente at Persons With Disabilities (P3PWD) party list after the poll body rejected the opposition to the party-list group’s substitution of nominees.

Comelec acting spokesperson Rex Laudiangco said the en banc has approved the law department’s recommendation to deny the verified opposition filed by Duterte Youth, noting that the Party-List System Act allows party-list groups to submit new nominees when their list of nominees has been exhausted.

The decision to allow the substitution is also consistent with the Comelec’s decision on the Duterte Youth’s 2019 case, which gave due course to their withdrawal and substitution of nominees after the elections, Laudiangco said.

Rowena Guanzon has taken her oath before Court of Appeal Justice Edwin Sorsogon, whom she said was the former prosecutor of her father, Judge Sixto Guanzon.

“On the merits, denied talaga ‘yun,” Guanzon said, reacting to the Comelec’s decision. “Kung titingnan niyo sa Partylist Law na wala talagang prohibition sa party list na magpalit ng mga nominees, as long as naubos an listahan na sinubmit nila sa Comelec.”

Last week, P3PWD had all of its five nominees resign from their posts while submitting a fresh list of nominees. Guanzon, the new first nominee, took up the lone seat they won in the May 2022 polls.

In the documents submitted to the poll body, the former first nominee said she needed to look after her daughter who recently fell ill.

The Comelec approved the withdrawal and substitution a day after.

Duterte Youth chair Ronald Cardema opposed P3PWD’s move, warning that Guanzon’s action is “clearly graft and corruption” as she was involved in accrediting party-list groups as Comelec commissioner before she retired last February.

To recall, Cardema took a similar approach as Guanzon to become a nominee of Duterte Youth in 2019. But his nomination was cancelled as he did not qualify to represent the youth sector due to his age. Guanzon was one of the two commissioners who voted in favor of his cancellation.

Laudiangco earlier clarified that P3PWD was accredited last year by a different Comelec division from the one that was presided over by Guanzon.

P3PWD was not the only party list to have its nominees withdrawn and then replaced. Social Amelioration and Genuine Intervention on Poverty (SAGIP) party list also had its second to fifth nominees withdrawn, naming Rodante Marcoleta as one of its two representatives.

While party-list groups are only allowed to substitute their nominees until November 15, the Party-List Systems Act allows them to submit nominees if they have already exhausted their original list.

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