The Commission on Elections has denied the verified opposition to the substitution of Komunidad ng Pamilya, Pasyente at Persons with Disabilities (P3PWD) Party-List nominees filed by the Duterte Youth Party-List.
In a statement, Comelec Acting Spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco said the en banc on Wednesday approved the recommendation of the Law Department to deny the June 17, verified opposition of the Duterte Youth.
He cited the following as grounds: Resolution 10717 provides for the rules prior to elections and not post-elections; consistent with the 2019 case of Duterte Youth wherein the Commission en banc granted/allowed/gave due course to withdrawals, substitutions and submission of new list of nominees after elections under the following Minute Resolutions: 19-0569 (May 14, 2019), 19-0849 (August 28, 2019) and 19-1006 (October 23, 2019); Sections 8 and 16 of Republic Act No. 7941 allows submission of additional nominees when the list of nominees had been exhausted.
Last week, the Comelec en banc granted the withdrawal of the five nominees of P3PWD. It also approved the group's new set of nominees with former Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon as first nominee.
It then gave the party-list group until June 19 to publish their list of new nominees. The group already complied with the publication requirements on June 15.
Laudiangco said the Comelec Secretary, the Supervisory Committee and the Law Department had also been directed to issue the Certificate of Proclamation as well as to transmit to the Secretary-General of the House of Representatives the Certified List of Nominees of P3PWD.
"It’s just a matter of formality of transmitting to P3PWD the signed Certificate of Proclamation in the name of the 1st Nominee," he said.