The Supreme Court building in Manila. INQUIRER PHOTO / NIرO JESUS ORBETA
MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court (SC) declared null and void the substitution of former Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner Rowena Guanzon as the first nominee of the Komunidad ng Pamilya, Pasyente at Persons with Disabilities (P3PWD) during the previous 2022 elections.
In a decision dated August 20 but made public Wednesday, the SC, through Associate Justice Ricado Rosario granted the petition filed by the Duterte Youth Party-list Group.
READ: P3PWD Party-list nominees resign; Guanzon name comes out as replacement
“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 SC ordered P3PWD to submit additional nominees but prohibited the group from renominating the nominees whose substitutions have been invalidated.
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Aside from Guanzon, the SC also nullified the nominations of Rosalie Garcia, Cherie Belmonte-Lim, Donnabel Tenorio and Rodolfo Villar.
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READ: Guanzon sits as P3PWD’s representative
“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 SC said “the timing of the substitution of nominees is not merely a matter of form but of substance.”
It pointed out that substition of nominees “affects the very right 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 Duterte Youth, in its petition said the substitutions were made beyond the deadlines set by the Comelec resolution. They added that the substitution violated the laws because Guanzon was part of the Comelec, which approved the party-lists joining the 2022 national and local elections, including P3PWD.
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