Duterte Youth head hit for 鈥榖ullying鈥� Comelec
Former Duterte Youth Rep. Ronald Cardema —Screengrab from Facebook
MANILA, Philippines — Kabataan Rep. Raoul Manuel on Saturday scored former Duterte Youth Rep. Ronald Cardema for his “desperate meltdowns” to “bully” the Commission on Elections (Comelec) into proclaiming the group among the party list winners.
In a statement, Manuel chided the 40-year-old Cardema for “[throwing] tantrums and peddling disinformation to bully Comelec into giving them a seat in Congress.”
Earlier, the former National Youth Commission chair under the Duterte administration staged a press conference slamming the Comelec for its “unequal treatment” of party lists that still had pending cases like theirs, but were still proclaimed early this week.
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Pending cases
Despite placing No. 2 in the party list elections and winning three seats in the 20th Congress, the Comelec deferred the proclamation of Duterte Youth pending the resolution of at least two complaints, including a 2019 petition seeking to nullify its registration status.
The petition is based on Cardema’s age, then 34, as Duterte Youth’s first nominee in 2019 despite an election rule limiting youth party list nominees to the age of 30.
Manuel pointed out the seeming hypocrisy of Cardema and Duterte Youth when they lobbied for President Marcos’ impeachment while also supporting his call for all Cabinet secretaries and agency heads to submit their courtesy resignations.
“All that just so the Comelec Chair [George Garcia] could resign. They would brown-nose as long as they could sit in Congress. Trapo hanggang dulo (Traditional politician till the end).”
‘Not beyond the law’
Instead, Manuel said the real “unequal treatment” that should be questioned is Comelec allowing Duterte Youth to run in previous elections even as it stands accused of not being a registered party list.
“This is the real politicking; just because you’re named after or allied with powerful people means you could be beyond the law,” Manuel added. /cb
