MANILA – The Supreme Court (SC) has granted a petition questioning the substitution of Commission and Elections (Comelec) commissioner Ma. Rowena Amelia Guanzon as the first nominee of the Komunidad ng Pamilya,Pasyente at Persons with Disabilities (P3PWD) party-list which won a seat in the 2022 elections.
In its 42-page decision written by Associate Justice Ricardo Rosario dated August 20, and received by the Comelec on Wednesday, the high court ruled against the substitution and ordered the group to cease from renominating Guanzon.
“The petition is granted. Comelec Minute resolution dated June 15, 2022 is declared null and void for having been issued with grave abuse of discretion insofar as it approved the substitution of the nominees of respondent P3PWD Party-list. The court’s restraining order dated June 29, 2022 is made permanent,” the ruling read.
The court ordered P3PWD to submit additional nominees, “but is strictly enjoined from renominating” the nominees whose substitutions were declared null and void by the decision.
The SC has also declared null and void the nominations of Rosalie Garcia, Cherie Belmonte-Lim, Donnabel Tenorio and Rodolfo Villar.
“If we were to deem rules and regulations on nominee substitution as directory after elections, we would be negating the exceptional character of substitution. In effect, substitution would become the rule rather than the exception and parties would hardly be incentivized to field nominees with bona fide intention to assume office, thus reducing elections to a mere sport where players may be substituted at will or on a whim,” the court said.
“The timing of the substitution of nominees is not merely a matter of form but of substance. It affects the very tight of the electorate to know the identities of the nominees of a party-list organization in order to make an intelligent and informed choice come election day,” the tribunal added.
The petitioner in the case was the Duty to Energize the Republic Through the Enlightenment of the Youth (DUTERTE Youth) Party-list represented by its chairperson Ronald Cardema.
The group had claimed that the substitutions made by P3PWD Party-List were filed beyond the deadlines set by the Comelec resolution, and that the substitution would violate corruption laws because Guanzon was just recently a member of the Comelec, which approved the party-lists joining the 2022 national and local elections, including P3PWD. (PNA)