By Leslie Ann Aquino
Poll watchdog group Kontra Daya said the Commission on Elections should disqualify the Duterte Youth partylist for making a mockery of the partylist system.
(MANILA BULLETIN)
The statement was made after the group submitted a new set of nominees to the Comelec with Ronald Cardema and his wife Ducielle as first and second nominees.
The Comelec First Division earlier granted the petitions seeking the cancellation of the nomination of Cardema as Duterte Youth partylist first nominee.
The First Division ruled that Cardema is not eligible for nomination to represent Duterte Youth in the House of Representatives.
"Ronald Cardema and the Duterte Youth are making yet another mockery of the party-list system and another blatant circumvention of the law. Notice that the new 2nd nominee is his wife Ducielle who withdrew her nomination as first nominee to be replaced by him two months ago. Now she wants to be second nominee because the first nominee, Ronald Cardema, was recently declared ineligible by the COMELEC first division as Duterte Youth party-list nominee, making her a probable party-list representative," Kontra Daya convenor Danilo Arao said.
Lawyer Emilio Marañon III, one of the lead counsel of the petitioners versus Cardema, echoed the same sentiment.
"This substitution is yet another mockery of the party-list system, of the Comelec and of the general public and, thus, should not be allowed by the Commission en banc," he said in a statement.