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Comelec urged to resolve petition nullifying Duterte Youth registration
A youth-led election watchdog group asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to resolve a 2019 petition seeking to nullify the registration of the Duterte Youth party-list.
The Kabataan Tayo ang Pag-asa (KTAP) on Tuesday visited the Comelec main office in Intramuros, Manila to file an urgent motion to resolve the petition, which seeks to cancel or to declare nullity the registration of Duterte Youth for being void ab initio, or void from the beginning.
The case has been pending with the poll body for six years.
According to petitioners Reeya Beatrice Magtalas, Abigail Aleli Tan, Raainah Punzalan, and Aunell Ross Angcos, the registration of Duterte Youth is void ab initio as they committed material representation when they fieled overaged nominees in 2019.
“‘Yung mga original petitioners dati youth pa kami, ngayon ‘di na kami youth katulad ni Ronald Cardema,” said Angcos.
(The original petitioners were young before but now we’re overaged like Cardema.)
“Ang hiling namin sa Comelec, lalo ngayon na medyo nagbago na ang ihip ng hangin at mukhang mas matunog na ang justice, sana iresolba na ito at tanggaling ang pekeng representatives ng kabataan sa Kongreso,” he said.
(Our hope is for the Comelec to resolve this and to remove the false representatives of youth in the Congress.)
Section 9 of Republic Act No. 7491 or the Party-list System Act states that party-list representatives of the youth sector should only be aged between 25 to 30 years old. Cardema was 34 years old when he was named Duterte Youth first nominee.
In August 2019, the Comelec canceled Cardema’s nomination due to misrepresentation. He was replaced by his wife, Ducielle Cardema.
“Hindi pa nareresolba ang mga petitions before, bakit hahayaan pa rin sila tumakbo at makakuha pa at makapanlilang pa ng boto?” said Angcos.
(They still have pending petitions so why are they allowed to run?)
GMA Integrated News reached out to Duterte Youth for comment but it has yet to respond.
Meanwhile, the Comelec agreed the petition should be resolved. It also cited the changes in the members of the Division for the delay.
“This time, since kumpleto ang Commission, we will take this opportunity to resolve immediately before the elections ang mga ganiyang klaseng kaso,” poll chief George Erwin Garcia said.
(We will take this opportunity to resolve these kinds of cases before the elections.) —RF, GMA Integrated News
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