10 groups oppose Cardema’s party list substitution

At least 10 groups have filed petitions with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) against the last-minute attempt of former National Youth Commission (NYC) Chair Ronald Cardema to become the official nominee of the pro-administration Duterte Youth party list group.

The 10 groups that  -submitted their opposition to Cardema’s substitution bid include poll watchdog Kontra Daya and the youth group Millennials PH.

Consolidated

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said on Friday that these petitions should be addressed first before the commission could decide on whether Cardema is eligible to be the nominee of Duterte Youth.

Jimenez said it was possible that the petitions would be consolidated in the interest of time.

“Those that can be consolidated may be consolidated. It will be too time consuming, I think, to dispose of each one, especially if they raise substantively the same issues,” he said.

Duterte Youth was one of the 51 groups which got one of the 61 House seats allocated for party list groups.

Jimenez stressed that what were proclaimed on Wednesday night were the party list winners, and not their nominees.

“The [proclamation of] nominees will happen in due course when they are about to [assume office]. That would be in writing,” he said.