Francisco Datol Jr. takes oath as Senior Citizens party-list representative

Francisco Datol Jr. took his oath on Wednesday as the duly recognized representative of the Senior Citizens party-list in the 18th Congress.

During the plenary session of the House of Representatives this afternoon, Majority Leader Martin Romualdez announced the chamber's receipt of a Certificate of Proclamation from the Commission on Elections proclaiming the Coalition of Association of Senior Citizens of the Philippines as winner in the 2019 party-list elections, entitling its nominee, Datol, a seat in Congress.

Francisco Datol takes oath as the representative of the Senior Citizens party-list in the 18th Congress. @gmanews pic.twitter.com/AIbuWEQF1o

— Erwin Colcol (@erwincolcol) December 4, 2019

Datol has also previously served as representative of the Senior Citizens party-list in the 17th Congress alongside former Representative Milagros Magsaysay. He took his oath before Deputy Speaker Rodante Marcoleta.

Romualdez, along with Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, Minority Leader Benny Abante Jr., and four other deputy speakers earlier filed a resolution urging the Comelec to release the Certificate of Proclamations to the first nominees of winning party-lists Senior Citizens and Duterte Youth.

The resolution pointed out that it has already been more than six months since the canvassing for the May 2019 midterm elections has ended, yet the cases remain unresolved.

"The prolonged or more than six months unresolved and undecided cases evidently deny due process to the parties, including the disenfranchised 857,653 Filipinos who voted for the party-lists Senior Citizens and Duterte Youth," the resolution read.

The Senior Citizens party-list failed to immediate occupy a seat at the House of Representatives pending Comelec recognition of its official nominees.

This was after Senior Citizens party-list president Godofredo Villar-Arquiza, Datol and Magsaysay all claimed to be president of the senior citizens' group and endorsed different sets of nominees, according to a report by BusinessMirror.

Meanwhile, Comelec First Division had earlier disqualified former National Youth Commission chairperson Ronald Cardema as the first nominee of the Duterte Youth party-list because he was over the age limit of 30 years for representatives of youth party-list organizations.

The election body en banc then approved the substitute nominees of the Duterte Youth party-list, including Cardema's wife Ducielle. — BM, GMA News