By Leslie Ann Aquino
“The period of substitution has already lapsed.”
Commission on Elections (COMELEC) spokesman James Jimenez said this in reaction to the reported attempt of National Youth Commission (NYC) Chair Ronald Cardema to become a party-list nominee, which will likely become futile.
COMELEC Spokesman James Jimenez
(ALVIN KASIBAN / MANILA BULLETIN(
Cardema supposedly filed a motion to become a substitute nominee of the Duterte Youth party-list after his wife Ducielle Marie Suarez, Duterte Youth's first nominee, withdrew her acceptance to the nomination of the group.
"I think we have published rules for that and that the period for substitution has already lapsed," said Jimenez in a press briefing Friday.
When asked if it's the first time that such an attempt to be a substitute party-list nominee is being sought, Jimenez replied with: Not by a long shot. People do it all the time.
Based on COMELEC Resolution No. 3307, a party-list nominee may only be substituted if he dies, or his nomination is withdrawn by the party, or he becomes incapacitated to continue as such, or he withdraws his acceptance to the nomination.
It added that no substitution shall be allowed by reason of withdrawal after the close of polls
Comelec rules also provide that the name of the substitute nominee shall be placed last in the list of the group's nominees.
The other nominees of the Duterte Youth are Joseph de Guzman (2nd), Benilda de Guzman (3rd), Arnaldo Villafranca (4th), and Elizabeth Anne Cardema (5th).
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