COMELEC should oppose NYC Chair Cardema’s move to substitute as Duterte Youth party-list rep

PRESS STATEMENT
May 17, 2019

Kontra Daya strongly opposes moves by National Youth Commission (NYC) Chair Ronald Cardema to substitute as party-list nominee for Duterte Youth. It would be the ultimate mockery of the party-list system.

There can be no substitution after the polls close. Cardema filed his motion only on Thursday (May 16), or three days after the polls ended. The rules are clear as may be gleaned from Sec. 8 of the Party-list System Act of 1995 and Sec. 18 of COMELEC Resolution No. 3307-A.

Sec. 18. Substitution of nominees. – A party-list nominee may be substituted only when he dies, or his nomination is withdrawn by the party, or he becomes incapacitated to continue as such, or he withdraws his acceptance to the nomination. In any of these cases, the name of the substitute nominee shall be placed last in the list of nominees.

No substitution shall be allowed by reason of withdrawal after the close of polls.

Cardema is clearly circumventing the law. Other public officials are deemed resigned when they accept a nomination for party-list representative. Cardema never resigned as NYC Chair but actively campaigned for Duterte Youth. Now he wants to sit as its representative in Congress. He wants to have his cake and eat it too, so to speak.

The independence of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) will be seriously put into question if it allows this illegal substitution for a known Duterte ally. Allowing it will cement public perception that the Comelec is under the control of the Duterte cabal in Malacañan Palace.

The COMELEC should dismiss outright this prohibited pleading from Cardema and save whatever little is left of the integrity of the party-list system. The COMELEC should not be a party to the further erosion and destruction of this system by allowing such a patently illegal substitution

.Contact person: Danilo Arao, convenor, Kontra Daya