Former MMDA spokesperson Celine Pialago. INQUIRER.net file photo / RYAN LEAGOGO
MANILA, Philippines — The first nominee for party-list group Malasakit Movement will contest the Commission on Election’s decision to de-list it from the 2022 polls, saying it will exhaust all possible means.
Celine Pialago, the first representative of the party-list, said their legal team will exhaust all means to reverse the group’s exclusion from the Comelec’s list of candidates on the ballot.
Pialago was the former spokesperson of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac).
“May mga legal na paraan pa po para makalaban sa darating na 2022 elections. Hahayaan ko na po ang aming legal team sa bagay na yan,” Pialago said in a statement.
(There are legal ways to fight in the upcoming 2022 elections. I will let our legal team handle that stuff.)
“Kapag mabuti ang hangarin, kapag tama ang pinaglalaban, lalaban,” she added.
(When one has good intentions and the right principles, one should fight.)
The reason behind the party-list’s exclusion is not yet clear.
It can be recalled that Pialago left the MMDA on October 1, 2021 to focus on her congressional bid.
Comelec decision ‘commendable’
Militant fishermen’s group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) lauded the Comelec’s decision, claiming Malasakit Movement party list was allegedly backed by anticommunist task force NTF-Elcac.
“We welcome the poll body’s decision to reject this bogus party-list from participating in the national polls, Ronnel Arambulo, national chairman of Pamalakaya, said in a statement.
Arambulo said the poll body should also remove other alleged NTF-Elcac party-list from the polls, like the Mothers for Change (Mocha) with Mocha Uson, and NTF-ELCAC ambassador Michele Gumabao as representatives.
“The Comelec should safeguard and reinforce the very purpose of the party-list system, which is a representation of the marginalized sectors,” Arambulo said. “The NTF-ELCAC appears like a civilian-military junta vying for Congressional seats to further bastardize the party-list system and advance their anti-democratic agendas.”