Former NYC execs: Junk substitution bids of Duterte Youth's 30-somethings
MANILA, Philippines — Former officials of the National Youth Commission are calling for the “outright dismissal” of the application of Duterte Youth party-list’s substitute nominees, which includes former NYC chairman Ronald Cardema.
In a joint statement Monday, former NYC chairs Ice Seguerra, Gio Tingson and Leon Flores III, and commissioners Dingdong Dantes, Perci Vilar Cendena, JP Peñol and Erwin Chua Andaya stressed the application for substitution should not have been given due course at all because Cardema and the four other substitute nominees are too old to represent the youth sector
Section 9 of the Party-list System Act states that a nominee of the youth sector must be at least 25 years old but not more than 30 years old on the day of elections. Cardema is 34 years old, according to his own application for substitution.
"Upon their very own admission on their Certificate of Nomination and Acceptance, former NYC chairman Ronald Cardema and the four other nominee-applicants, undisputedly fall outside the prescribed age set by law," the former NYC officials said in a joint statement.
Cardema has defended his nomination, saying there is no limit for party-list that represents “youth and professionals”—the sector that he said Duterte Youth represents.
Duterte Youth did not make this distinction during the election campaign and positioned itself as a rival to Kabataan party-list, a leftist party-list that represents the youth sector.
In a May 9 press statement sent through an NYC email address, Cardema said: "Labanan ito ng dalawang party-lists sa youth sector, isa solid na anti-government at isa solid na pro-government, isa galit sa government troops at isa gusto pa ibalik ang ROTC military training sa kabataan ng bansa."
(This is a fight between two party-lists in the youth sector. One solidly anti-government and one that is solidly pro-government. One that is against government troops and another that even wants to revive Reserve Officers' Training Corps military training for the country's youth.)
'Duterte Youth seeks to represent youth sector'
"The name of their party-list is called 'Duterte Youth' and they have willingly presented themselves to the public as a youth-championing party-list. It is apparent that they are seeking to represent the youth sector including all its sub-sectors like young professionals," the former NYC chairs and commissioners said.
They added: "This circumvention of electoral laws and extraordinary accommodations to non-members of the youth sector effectively disenfranchise the very sector they seek to represent."
Last week, the Comelec released an excerpt of its en banc resolution granting the withdrawals of the CONA of initial Duterte Youth nominees, which include Ducielle Marie Suarez—Cardema’s wife—and four others.
The en banc also resolved to give due course to the nomination of Cardema and four others. "Given due course" means a petition has moved forward but does not necessarily mean it has been approved or disapproved.
Probe Cardema
The former officials of the NYC also called on government agencies to investigate Cardema. He was deemed to have abandoned his post as the head of the commission when he filed to be a substitute nominee of the Duterte Youth party-list on May 12—the Sunday just before the midterm elections.
“We call on various government agencies to initiate an investigation to ascertain if Cardema indeed inappropriately used government funds, resources, and his position to advance the interest of the party-list which he heads. A whiff of corruption requires that he be held accountable for his actions,” they said.
Last week, Commission on Elections spokesperson James Jimenez said the poll body needs formal complaints and concrete evidence that Cardema used NYC’s budget to fund the campaign of Duterte Youth, which won one seat in the 2019 elections.
Cardema was appointed as the chair of the youth commission in August 2018, replacing Seguerra.
‘Don’t drag NYC’
They also lamented that the actions of Cardema have seemingly smeared the name of the commission as they urged the media and the public to refrain from dragging the name of NYC.
“The NYC is an institution composed of many noble and hardworking civil servants who only wish to serve the Filipino youth regardless of political regime or partisan dispositions,” the former officials said.
They added: “For the sake of fairness, the maneuverings of one person should not be equated to and interpreted as the action of the institution.”
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