Election lawyer blasts party-list lawmaker’s proclamation

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

 

The lawyer in one of the disqualification cases against the Duterte Youth Party-List on Wednesday slammed the resolution of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) which paved the way for its proclamation as a winning party-list in the May 13, 2019 elections.

Duterte Youth Party-List’s first nominee, Ducielle Suarez-Cardema, shocked everyone Tuesday afternoon when she appeared on the Roll Call during the House of Representatives’ special session on the 2021 National Budget.

Suarez-Cardema also took her oath as a member of the House that afternoon.

A few hours later, the COMELEC En Banc released its minute resolution ordering the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) to proclaim the party-list as a winner in the last national polls.

The COMELEC En Banc is the highest decision-making body of the commission, composed of the chairman and the six commissioners.

The vote, which was done on Sept. 9, resulted in 4-1 in favor of the party-list, with Commissioner Rowena Guanzon dissenting.

The COMELEC’s junior commissioner, Michael Peloton, had not yet assumed office, thus one seat in the commission remains vacant as of this writing.

Election lawyer Emil Marañon III, one of the petitioners against the party-list, told Daily Guardian via phone interview that they were surprised by the oath-taking and proclamation.

“We were surprised that she (Suarez-Cardema) had already taken oath at the House of Representatives when, in fact, COMELEC has yet to publicly release the official proclamation of the Duterte Youth. It was a surprise because they’ve done the roll call, her name was already included, and after the session she took an oath,” Marañon said in a phone interview.

Marañon added that they were wary because Suarez-Cardema’s assumption before oath-taking was against the law.

Article 236 of the Revised Penal Code punishes any person assuming office before oath-taking or being given the bond required by law with suspension from their public office and a fine ranging from P200 to P500.

“So apart from the fact that we were surprised, we became wary of the fact that she assumed office before she took an oath, because under our administrative law, it is basic that before one can assume public office, they should first take an oath of office. In fact, this is a crime under the Revised Penal Code when you prematurely assume office without first taking the required oath of office under the law,” he added.

The Ilonggo lawyer also pointed out that it was the En Banc who issued the proclamation and not the NBOC.

He said that while they are composed of the same persons, under the Constitution they are two different bodies.

Section 27 of Rep. Act No. 8436, as amended by Sec. 22 of R.A. No. 9369, mandates that the En Banc should sit as the NBOC in proclaiming winning candidates for senators and party-list representatives.

“That is why if you’ve watched the PICC canvassing proceedings, you would see that the COMELEC would say that ‘We are convening as the [NBOC],’” he pointed out.

The case filed by Marañon and other election lawyers involved the status of Duterte Youth Party List, as it had not complied with the requirements laid down by R.A. No. 7941.

Sec. 5 of the R.A. No. 7941 requires the publication of the petitions of registration for party-list organizations in two newspapers of general circulation.

The 2013 Supreme Court case of Cocofed vs. COMELEC, which Guanzon used in her recent dissent, held that the publication requirement cannot be ignored in the registration process.

Marañon took a shot at Inting’s affirmative vote, saying that the En Banc should have acted on the disqualification cases first.

“If this case is prejudicial to the proclamation, why would they proclaim before deciding on the case? So if they haven’t decided on [the cases], why would they proclaim? Because it is very simple. What we are saying is that they are not a registered party-list group because they have not completed the registration process,” he said.

He clarified that they did not have issues with Mrs. Cardema’s qualifications as nominee, but that their case was against the party-list itself.

He cited two other points against the party-list: that the substitution made by Ducielle’s wife, Ronald Cardema, was illegal, and that the party-list had committed vote-buying and threats against a class of persons.

Sec. 8 of R.A. No. 7941 prohibits substitutions unless the nominee dies or in writing, expresses becoming incapacitated.

Meanwhile, Sec. 261 of Batas Pambansa Blg. 881 (Omnibus Election Code) penalized vote-buying and threats as election offenses.

Mr. Cardema, who was then-National Youth Commission (NYC) Chairperson, replaced his wife as nominee one day before the national polls, May 12, 2019, along with five other nominees.

The substitution was slammed by the COMELEC, with its First Division on Aug. 6 last year disqualifying Ronald as first nominee on account of his age.

Sec. 9 of the party-list law required that youth sector representatives must be between 25 to 30 years old on election day.

Marañon revealed to Rappler on Sep. 23, 2019 that the COMELEC En Banc had approved a new set of substitute nominees for the embattled group, with Ronald still as first nominee and his wife now as second nominee.

Regarding the current decision of the country’s chief poll body, Marañon warned that its “lax” attitude towards the Duterte Youth Party List may “set a bad precedent” for future party-list elections.

“Our worry here is that the COMELEC has been lax in implementing the law and the Constitution, then what will happen here is that anyone [that] isn’t qualified like Duterte Youth can come in and participate in the party-list elections. What we have been saying here is the party-list system has been trashed and made worse by the COMELEC by relaxing the rules. This will set a very bad precedent in the coming election and in actual future party-list elections,” Marañon said.

The Duterte Youth Party-List, which by name is allied with President Rodrigo Duterte, ranked 21st in the last elections, with 354,629 votes or 1.27 percent of the total vote count according to the COMELEC’s official data.