The Commission on Elections (Comelec) Second Division has voted to cancel the registration of the Duterte Youth party-list, a decision announced by Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia on Wednesday.

The resolution, signed and dated June 18, showed the division voted 2-1 in favor of the cancellation. This ruling stems from a 2019 case filed against the organization by youth leaders. They sought to nullify Duterte Youth’s registration because the Comelec en banc had approved it without following mandated procedures, specifically the publication of the organization’s petition and holding a proper hearing on its application, as required by the Party-list System Act.

The 25-page decision highlighted several grounds for cancellation: the petition was filed on time, the party-list’s registration was void from the beginning due to non-compliance with publication and hearing requirements, and the party-list committed grounds for cancellation under Comelec Resolution No. 9366. This includes issues with the group’s alleged intention to represent the youth sector adequately, and alleged funding or assistance from the National Youth Commission (NYC) through its former chairman, Ronald Cardema. The division also noted inconsistencies in the party-list’s documents regarding its representation of the professional sector and criticized the “back and forth switching” of nominees in May 2019, which it said undermined transparency and fair representation.

Chairman Garcia explained that cancelling a party-list’s registration means it’s as if the organization was never accredited, stripping it of all rights and privileges. Duterte Youth had ranked second in the party-list race with over 2 million votes, but its proclamation was previously suspended due to these pending cases.

Decision not yet final

Garcia stressed that the decision is not yet final. Duterte Youth has five days from the promulgation of the ruling to file a motion for reconsideration. Should the Comelec en banc (full commission) uphold the division’s decision, the party-list can still appeal the ruling before the Supreme Court within another five days.

Garcia also clarified that it’s too early to discuss whether Duterte Youth can assume seats in the 20th Congress or if other losing party-lists can claim those seats. The Comelec en banc briefly discussed this, but paused talks as Duterte Youth still has legal remedies available. Commissioner Rey Bulay was the dissenting vote in the Second Division’s ruling, arguing to dismiss the petition against Duterte Youth. The writing of the majority decision was reassigned to one of the two dissenting members who formed the majority vote.

The party-list, named after former President Rodrigo Duterte, also faced scrutiny over the surname of its nominee, Rep. Drixie Mae Suarez Cardema, who allegedly used “Cardema” as a “political name.” She is the sister of Ducielle Cardema, wife of the group’s chairman Ronald Cardema. Ronald and Ducielle also ran for local posts in Laguna under the “Cardema political name” but lost.