Cardema and his Duterte Youth substitution bid
A House resolution urging the Commission on Elections to proclaim the nominee of Duterte Youth party-list as a winner in the May elections was filed by "bullies with ignoble motives for transgressing on the mandate of the COMELEC in order to back their political allies," youth group Samahan Ng Progresibong Kabataan says.
House Resolution 552 was filed by Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, Majority Leader Martin Romualdez, Minority Leader Bienvenido Abante Jr., and Deputy Speakers Michael Romero, Rodante Marcoleta, Conrado Estrella, and Eddie Villanueva.
"The powerful members of the House think they have the right to pressure independent institutions like the COMELEC to release decisions when and how they want speaks to how drunk with power these legislators are. Congressmen, know your place!," says SPARK spokesperson, John Lazaro.
"COMELEC should put a stop to Duterte Youth's PR stunts by outrightly rejecting its petitions," Akbayan Youth secretary general Justine Balane says of the Commission on Electons' decision to accept a new set of substitute nominees for the party-list, including its original first nominee.
"This has gone long enough. The rules have been clear from the start, let's stick to it. With the delayed release of the decision on the partylist's and its nominees' eligibility, the COMELEC opens an opportunity for Cardema and Duterte Youth to play the victim," Akbayan youth also says.
Former National Youth Commission chairman Ronald Cardema had withdrawn his nomination—submitted after a division of the Comelec had already disqualified him—to be the party-lists's first nominee in place of his wife, who had withdrawn as nominee before the May elections.
Ducielle Marie Suarez, Cardema's wife, is now second nominee of the party-list that her husband chairs.
Duterte Youth party-list chairman Ronald Cardema's withdrawal of his bid to represent the group at the House of Representatives is an attempt to play the victim, Akbayan Youth says in a release.
"Ronald Cardema is [not] and will never be the representative of the youth in congress," Akbayan Youth secretary-general Justine Balane says in reaction to Cardema's filing of a notice to withdraw as a nominee for the group, a nomination that the Comelec First Division earlier cancelled.
Cardema included himself in a new set of nominees for Duterte Youth.
"Now that his attempt at powerplay failed, he is determined to appear as if he is being bullied. If anything, the victim is the Filipino youth," Balane says.
Commission on Elections Commissioner Rowena Guanzon insists in an interview on ANC that Duterte Youth leader Ronald Cardema's case is still within the poll body's jurisdiction since the presumptive congressman has not been issued a certificate of proclamation.
A division of the Comelec has disqualified Cardema as the party-list's nominee for, among other thing, being too old to be a youth sector representative at 34 years old.
Cardema, who has accused Guanzon of extortion, says he has already taken his oath as a member of the House of Representatives and that his case should be decided by the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal.
Duterte Youth leader Ronald Cardema challenges Commission on Elections Commissioner Rowena Guanzon to submit their phones to forensic examination, saying this will prove that an unnamed congresswoman, whom he claimed is Guanzon's "bagman", had asked for money and favors on the commissioner's behalf.
He also says he may file an impeachment case against Guanzon, who had opposed his last-minute substitution as a party-list representative of the Duterte Youth.
She has stressed that Cardema is too old to be a youth sector representative.
Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon again hits back at disqualified Duterte Youth party-list nominee Ronald Cardema who hurled extortion allegations at the poll official.
"why will I extort money from him or anyone? I don't need it. I am richer than Cardema for sure," Guanzon says in a tweet Sunday.
why will I extort money from him or anyone? I don't need it. I am richer than Cardema for sure. https://t.co/pdGcciXQYa
— Rowena V. Guanzon (@commrguanzon) August 18, 2019
In another tweet on Saturday, the poll official slammed Cardema's intimidation tactics which she said are aimed at coercing her to reverse her vote.
before it was death threats, now extortion. Ano sunod, impeachment? All intimidation tactics to coerce me to reverse my vote. Again, friendly advise, study your case and get a good lawyer. But u can't change your date of birth.
— Rowena V. Guanzon (@commrguanzon) August 17, 2019
Guanzon added Saturday that the new nominees submitted by Duterte-Youth party-list do not meet the age and membership length requirements under the law.
Look at the people around him . They are not young people. they are not an organization of young people . Na FAKE ang mga youth who voted for him.
— Rowena V. Guanzon (@commrguanzon) August 17, 2019
cardema and their numbers 2 , 3, 4 are overaged, not youth. their 5th is 29 but not member of Party list at least 90 days so DQ also.
— Rowena V. Guanzon (@commrguanzon) August 17, 2019
Section 9 of Republic Act 7941 or the Party-list System Act states that:
In case of a nominee of the youth sector, he must at least be twenty-five (25) but not more than thirty (30) years of age on the day of the election. Any youth sectoral representative who attains the age of thirty during his term shall be allowed to continue until the expiration of his term.
A Comelec division cancels Ronald Cardema's nomination as Duterte Youth's party-list representative.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson seems to be taking a jab at former National Youth Commission Chair Ronald Cardema's substitution bid to be the representative of Duterte Youth party-list at Congress.
"First, he represents the youth sector but he is not so young. Then, he represents the professional sector but he has no profession. So what is he?" he says in a tweet.
First, he represents the youth sector but he is not so young.
— PING LACSON (@iampinglacson) June 20, 2019
Then, he represents the professional sector but he has no profession.
So what is he?
Former Commission on Elections chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. is attending the Comelec's hearing on opposition to substitution bids of the Duterte Youth as an "onlooker," BusinessWorld reports.
Few minutes before former NYC Chair Ronald Cardema's hearing regarding his Duterte Youth substitution, former Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. dropped by as an onlooker. He said that since Cardema's age is the issue, Cardema should have been denied due course. @bworldph pic.twitter.com/wOLTh9J7au
— Gillian Cortez (@gmcortez_) June 11, 2019
Brillantes, an election lawyer, says that presumptive Duterte Youth congressman Ronald Cardema's application to be a substitute nominee should not have been given due course because he is beyond the age limit for representatives of the youth sector.
Former National Youth Commission Chairman Ronald Cardema arrives at the Comelec to attend the hearing of the poll body's 1st Division on the disqualification case against him.
Ronald Cardema now at the Comelec to attend the hearing of the 1st Division on the disqualification case filed vs him. @PhilippineStar pic.twitter.com/aamUkfGgO7
— sheila crisostomo (@shecrisostomo) June 11, 2019
Former chairpersons and commissioners of the National Youth Commission have called for the "outright dismissal" of the applications of former NYC Chairman Ronald Cardema and four others as subsitute nominees for the Duterte Youth for being too old to represent the youth.
In a joint statement, former NYC chairs Ice Seguerra (2016-2018), Gio Tingson (2014-2016), and Leon Flores III (2011-2014) and commissioners Dingdong Dantes (2014-2016), Perci Vilar Cendana (2011-2016), JP Peñol (2014-2016), and Erwin Chua Andaya (2011-2014) stressed that the Party-List System Act requires representatives of the youth sector to be between 25 and 30 years old.
Cardema, who is deemed to have abandoned his post at the NYC by filing to be a substitute nominee, is 34, according to his own application for substitution.
"Upon their very own admission on their CONAs, former NYC Chairman Ronald Cardema and the four other nominee-applicants, undisputedly fall outside the prescribed age set by law. The name of their partylist is called ‘Duterte YOUTH’ and they have willingly presented themselves to the public as a youth-championing partylist," the former NYC officials said in a statement posted online by Flores.
Cardema has countered that Duterte Youth is actually meant to represent "youth and professionals," claiming further that this means the age limit does not apply to him.
"It is apparent that they are seeking to represent the youth sector including all its sub-sectors like young professionals. As such, the qualifications set forth by law categorically apply. Thus, owing to the law’s absolute and unconditional requirement, their application for substitution should not have been given due course at all," the former NYC officials also say.
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