Group questions approval of Guanzon as late substitute

FILE PHOTO: Former Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rowena Guanzon. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Remember the loud controversy over who would sit as representative of the party-list group Duterte Youth in the 2019 elections?

The poll watchdog group Kontra Daya is chafing at the memory, with the late substitution of former election commissioner Rowena Guanzon as a nominee of a winning party-list group.

By a 3-1 vote at its weekly meeting on Wednesday, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) allowed Guanzon to enter as a late-substitute nominee of the group P3PWD so she can sit as a party-list lawmaker in the House of Representatives.

The Comelec approved the recommendation of its law department to allow the mass resignation of all five nominees of P3PWD and their substitution by five new nominees led by Guanzon.

The four incumbent Comelec officials — acting Chair Socorro Inting and Commissioners Marlon Casquejo, Aimee Ferolino, and Rey Bulay — were Guanzon’s colleagues until she and two other commissioners stepped down at the end of their term of office last Feb. 2.

With the exception of Bulay who assumed office in December, they passed Comelec Resolution No. 10717 on Aug. 18, 2021, that set the deadline for the substitution of candidates and party-list nominees for the May 9 elections on Nov. 15, 2021.

‘Improper’

Section 12 of the resolution states that any substitution after Nov. 15 will not be valid except in case of death or incapacity of all the existing nominees and that such a substitution is allowed only up to midday of Election Day.

On Tuesday, P3PWD submitted to the Comelec the resignation letters of all its five nominees and named its five new nominees led by Guanzon.

But Kontra Daya described Guanzon’s late substitution as the first nominee of the party-list group as “improper” in view of the fact that she was a Comelec commissioner during the preparations for the 2022 party-list elections.

“The withdrawal of all five nominees so that [Guanzon] can be first nominee sets a dangerous precedent for future winners of the party-list race. We do not want placeholders as nominees who will just withdraw beyond the deadline,” Kontra Daya convener Danilo Arao also said.

Kontra Daya cited the substitution controversy that hounded the party-list group Duterte Youth in the 2019 elections—a substitution that Guanzon strongly opposed.

“The placeholder issue of listed nominees exists in both cases, but the 2019 case is much worse,” Arao said.

Duterte Youth made several late substitutions of nominees on the eve of and after the May 2019 elections.

Former National Youth Commission chair Ronald Cardema was substituted as the top nominee. When he was later disqualified for being past the age to represent a youth sectoral group, Duterte Youth made further late substitutions of nominees until eventually Cardema’s wife, Ducielle, assumed the post as its representative.

At that time, Guanzon engaged in a word war with Cardema over his disqualification and the late substitutions, which the Comelec allowed.

RA 7941

Guanzon was not a member of the former Comelec Second Division that granted P3PWD’s registration in the party-list elections, according to the poll body’s acting spokesperson and law department chief, Rex Laudiangco.

Asked if the decision on Guanzon’s case further opens the floodgates to so-called backdoor party-list representatives through late substitute nominees, Laudiangco said the Comelec would follow Republic Act No. 7941, or the Party-List System Act of 1995, “unless there is a clarificatory amendment to Sections 8 and 16.”

The two sections pertain to nominations of party-list representatives and vacancy of party-list seats.

“This is also not the first time that all nominees withdrew the acceptance of their nomination after the close of polls. In all instances, the ruling of the commission had been consistent,” said Laudiangco, citing the case of Duterte Youth, among others.

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