MANILA – The Duterte Youth party-list is challenging before the Supreme Court (SC) the decision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to suspend its proclamation on Monday.
In a statement, the party-list group said poll body chair George Garcia committed grave abuse of discretion when he prevented the proclamation of their group, the second highest vote getter in the midterm polls.
“Duterte Youth party-list chairman [Ronald] Cardema will challenge this very clear ‘grave abuse of discretion,’” the Duterte Youth said.
Comelec explained that the suspension was made due alleged serious allegations made by Kabataan party-List in a case filed before the poll body in 2019.
“If the allegations of the Kabataan party-List was ‘very serious’ in 2019, why did Comelec allow Duterte Youth party-list to: 1. Assume in Congress after the 2019 elections; 2. Be elected again and assume in Congress after the 2022 elections; and be elected again in the 2025 elections wherein millions of Filipino voters elected Duterte Youth party-list to be their Representative in Congress,” the group pointed out in a statement.
It added: “It is not the fault of the Duterte Youth party-list if Comelec did not dismiss that hao shiao case after its the last hearing in 2019, and now the Comelec is trying to subvert the votes of the Filipino people.”
Contrary to the claims of Kabataan, according to Duterte Youth, it is registered before the Comelec and is not engaged in vote-buying.
Also, the group refuted the claims of Kabataan that the former has been promoting violence by saying it will help the police and military in neutralizing communist terrorist groups.
Meanwhile, Cong. Bernadette Herrera also questioned the postponement of proclamation of the BH party-list as they did not receive a copy of the supposed petition against them.
“Siguro meron lang pong ayaw na manalo kami,” Herrera said in an interview with DZRH. “Katulad nga po ng sabi ni Comelec Chair, isa sa mga grounds talaga kung bakit ang petition ay na di-dismiss, ay kapag hindi nag-copy furnish o hindi man lang nagbigay ng notice dun sa mismong pina-file-an ng kaso.”
“Kaya umaasa kami sa agarang aksyon ng Comelec dito, upang ang Bagong Henerasyon party-list ay mai-proklama na,” the returning party-list representative added./PN
