Former Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner Rowena Guanzon is forcing all P3PWD party-list nominees to resign so she can be a substitute, National Youth Commission (NYC) Undersecretary Ronald Cardema said.
Cardema, in a GMA News report said “you (Guanzon) are forcing your nominees to declare themselves dead or incapacitated so you can substitute for them. That’s absurdity, right?”
He said substitutions are only allowed until election day, which he said is a rule Guanzon created during her stint as a commissioner at Comelec. Cardema added that he learned of this when one of the nominees reached out asking for help.
In response, Guanzon challenged Cardema to present to her the nominees she is allegedly coercing to resign, and that such complaint should be lodged with the poll regulator.
Cardema claimed there were screenshots of Guanzon’s supposed messages asking for the resignation of the nominees.
“Who gave you the authority, Cardema, to speak for this person that you alleged that I am coercing. You are all talk. Show us evidence. Name them and show us the person who is complaining,” Guanzon, quoted by the GMA News report, said.
Guanzon dismissed the accusations that she is seeking a congressional seat by taking the place of P3PWD nominees.
She added that P3PWD nominees are “honorable and highly educated” women, adding that “whoever sits there is worthy to be a representative and to push for our advocacy.”
The former Comelec commissioner also said that once a certification of proclamation is issued to the party-list, the party-list can then decide who will be its if all the nominees resigned and the group submitted a new list to the poll body.
In a forum meanwhile, lawyer Ferdinand Topacio said his legal team will study the possibility of asking for the cancelation of P3PWD’s registration considering that it was approved while Guanzon was still a Comelec commissioner.
He claimed that the party-list was registered because of a commissioner’s “premeditated plan” to be its nominee, which he said was a “fraud.”
But Guanzon dismissed the accusation, saying Topacio has an “axe to grind” against her over the unjust vexation case that she filed against him.