MANILA – The Supreme Court (SC) en banc junked the substitution of retired Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner Rowena Guanzon as the first nominee of Komunidad ng Pamilya, Pasyente at Persons with Disabilities (P3PWD) party-list in the 2022 national elections.
In a 131-page decision dated August 20 but only made public on Thursday, the SC granted a petition seeking the removal Guanzon from the list of nominees of the P3PWD party-list.
The petition against the former mayor of Cadiz City, Negros Occidental was filed by the Duty to Energize the Republic Through the Enlightenment of the Youth (Duterte Youth) party-list.
“Accordingly the Petition in G.R. No. 261123 is granted. Comelec Minute Resolution No. 22-0774, dated June 15, 2022 is declared null and void for having been issued with grave abuse of discretion insofar as it approved the substitution of the nominees of respondent P3PWD Party-List,” the SC said.
“The Court’s Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) dated June 29, 2022 is made permanent,” it added.
In June 2022, the SC issued a TRO preventing the implementation of a Comelec resolution allowing Guanzon to substitute as the number one nominee of P3PWD party-list.
The poll body previously approved in a “majority vote” the request of the P3PWD party to withdraw the nomination of its original roster, comprised of Grace Yeneza, Ira Paulo Pozon, Marianne Heidi Cruz Fullon, Peter Jonas David, and Lily Grace Tiangco.
Comelec also approved the new list of nominees that named Guanzon as its first nominee; Rosalie Garcia as its second nominee; Cherrie Belmonte-Lim, third; Donnabel Tenorio, fourth; and Rodolfo Villar Jr., its fifth.
But the SC en banc stated that it strictly barred the renomination of Guanzon, Garcia, Belmonte-Lim, Tenorio, and Villar Jr. and ordered the party-list group to submit new nominees.
“Respondent P3PWD Party-List is directed to submit additional nominees pursuant to Section 16 of Republic Act No. 7941 but is strictly enjoined from renominating for the duration of the19th Congress the nominees whose substitutions were declared null and void by this Decision, namely Ma. Rowena Amelia V. Guanzon, Rosalie J. Garcia, Cherrie B. Belmonte-Lim, Donnabel C. Tenorio, and Rodolfo B. Villar, Jr.,” the SC said./PN
