Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel can't help but point out the rather jarring, inconsistent views displayed in recent weeks by Ronald Cardema, chairman of rival Duterte Youth Party-list, about President Marcos.
In a statement Saturday, May 24, Manuel called out Cardema for his recent press conference wherein the latter reiterated his call for Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Garcia to resign amid the ongoing Cabinet revamp.
Manuel interpreted this as an endorsement of President Marcos' move, which was rather confounding since Duterte Youth, led by Cardema, tried to file an impeachment complaint against the Chief Executive only last May 8.
“Kahit pinapa-impeach nila si Marcos Jr., biglang suportado nila ang kaniyang courtesy resignation order para ipag-resign ang Comelec chair. Sumisipsip na naman sila para lang makaupo sa pwesto. Trapo hanggang dulo,” said Manuel, who was not one to bite his tongue.
(Even if they're trying to impeach Marcos Jr., they support all of a sudden his courtesy resignation order in order to have the Comelec chair resign. They're sucking up to him just to be able to sit in power. A traditional politician up to the end.)
Duterte Youth failed to file the impeachment complaint since House Secretary General Reginald Velasco wasn't there to receive the document.
It has been argued that Comelec--a constitutional body--isn't covered by President Marcos' courtesy resignation call, since it is not part of the Cabinet.
To some observers, Cardema has an axe to grind against Comelec, because it suspended its proclamation as one of the winning party-lists during the May 12 mid-term elections.
In the press conference, Cardema claimed that Comelec should focus on various election anomalies rather than "politicking" against Duterte Youth by barring it proclamation.
Commenting on this, Manuel took another swipe at Duterte Youth.
“Maraming dapat aksyunan na anomalya at pandaraya ang Comelec sa nagdaang eleksyon at nasa tuktok ng listahan ang misteryo kung bakit nahayaang tumakbo at umupo ng halos limang taon sa Kongreso ang isang peke at di rehistradong party-list tulad ng Duterte Youth. Ito ang totoong unequal treatment. Ito ang pamumulitika na dapat matigil na. Di porket kapangalan mo o kakampi ang nasa pwesto ay lulusot ka na sa batas,” Manuel said.
(The Comelec has many irregularities and cases of fraud from the recent elections that need to be addressed, and at the top of the list is the mystery of how an unregistered and fake party-list like Duterte Youth was allowed to run and sit in Congress for nearly five years. This is the real unequal treatment. This is the kind of political maneuvering that must end. Just because you share a name with someone in power or have allies in office doesn’t mean you can bypass the law.)