Duterte Youth party-list chairman Ronald Cardema on Friday called on Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Garcia to resign in the wake of the Comelec’s decision to suspend the group’s proclamation as a winner in the mid-term elections, and entitled to three seats in the House.
Duterte Youth party-list received 2,338,564 votes or 5.57 percent of the votes cast in Eleksyon 2025.
“Ang sabi due to serious allegations, grave allegations in 2019, ‘yung aming proklamasyon will be on hold. Serious pala eh. Ba’t hindi niyo ba naresolba noong 2019? ‘Yung huling hearing noong 2019 rin. Hindi na kami pinatawag kahit kailan lampas kalahating dekada na,” Cardema said during the Pandesal Forum.
(If those were indeed serious allegations against us, why did the Comelec not resolve it back in 2019 when those cases were filed? The last hearing was in 2019, and we were never asked to come again.)
Cardema was referring to the cases filed in 2019, which said Duterte Youth was ineligible to run in the party-list race since it failed to submit all the requirements needed to be recognized as a registered party-list.
Comelec Chairman Garcia maintained that the suspension of Duterte Youth’s proclamation is rooted in serious questions on its merits to participate in the party-list race, and that the poll body will resolve it sooner than later.
“Comelec will resolve it (cases vs. Duterte Youth) immediately. It concerns the merits of the group. But it is our obligation not only to the party list, but to their supporters and the Filipino people, to resolve this immediately,” Garcia said.
“Ang issue po roon goes to the heart of the fact kung dapat bang ma-accredit ang party-list na iyon,” he added.
(The issue goes to the heart of the fact whether or not the party-list group should be accredited.)
Garcia said he had nothing to do with the suspension of the proclamation of Duterte Youth since he did not participate in voting on the Comelec sitting as National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) Resolution providing the suspended proclamation of party-list winners.
“Hindi po ako nag-participate doon… Sa palagay niyo po ba kung mag-re-resign si Chairman Garcia, magbabago ba yung desisyon ng buong National Board? Anim pa rin po ‘yun. Ibig sabihin, wala pong magbabago roon kahit na ako mag-resign,” Garcia said.
(I had no part in the Resolution for the suspended proclamation. I will take those calls to resign in stride, but the Resolution won’t change even if I resign, since I was not a part of it. The votes for the suspended proclamation will remain six. Nothing changes.) –NB, GMA Integrated News
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