MANILA, Philippines (Updated 3:55 p.m.) — A lawmaker from the Makabayan bloc on Monday urged the House of Representatives to allow former elections commissioner Rowena Guanzon to assume her duties as the first nominee of the P3PWD party-list, nearly eight months after she took her oath of office.
In a privilege speech, Rep. Raoul Manuel (Kabataan Party-list) called on the lower chamber to allow Guanzon to participate in congressional hearings and plenary sessions as he argued that the former poll commissioner has complied with all requirements needed to assume office.
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“Currently, the position of the P3PWD Partylist in Congress has remained vacant for nearly eight months. Every month that the partylist is not represented in Congress leads to irreparable disenfranchisement among persons with disabilities (PWD),” Manuel said.
The lawmaker added that delays in allowing a duly-elected partylist to participate in Congress will “erode public trust” in government institutions.
Manuel said that Guanzon has met all three requirements needed to become a member of the House: a proclamation, an oath of office and an assumption of office.
“Guanzon complied with all these. She was proclaimed on June 22, 2022. The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has recognized the first nominee who took oath on June 30, 2022,” Manuel added.
“(Guanzon) should be able to participate in our sessions and activities as our colleague. If there are any concerns regarding their qualifications, those should be settled in the (House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal),” Manuel also said.
HRET is the lower chamber's electoral tribunal that decides on all election-related matters.
Guanzon has yet to begin her lawmaker stint after the Supreme Court in June 2022 issued a temporary restraining order on the implementation of a Comelec decision that proclaimed her substitution as the first nominee of the P3PWD partylist.
The Comelec, however, has maintained that it is up to the House to recognize Guanzon as it already proclaimed P3PWD as one of the winning partylist groups in the 2022 elections. P3PWD received around 384,000 votes, which earned it one seat in Congress.
Speaking on behalf of the Makabayan coalition, Manuel called on the lower chamber to ensure that PWDs will continue to have a representative advocating for their interests in the legislative chamber.
“We’re calling on Congress to strengthen the representation and voices of the marginalized sectors by supporting the proclamation of the P3PWD representative. With (P3PWD), we can ensure that lawmakers will perform their duties with the interests of the PWD sector in mind,” Manuel added.
Cardema raises 'unresolved irregularities'
However, Rep. Ducielle Cardema (Duterte Youth Party-list) called out Manuel for providing allegedly misleading information and maintained that the House should defer to the SC TRO barring Guanzon from assuming office.
Cardema alleged in a press release that there are unresolved irregularities in the substitution of Guanzon with Grace Yeneza, the previous first nominee of P3PWD.
“P3PWD Party-list could have assumed its seat in Congress after Grace Yeneza was proclaimed. However, things became complicated after Guanzon replaced Yeneza and its four reserve nominees four months after the elections,” Cardema said in a mix of Filipino and English.
Ducielle is married to former youth commissioner Ronald Cardema, whose House bid was blocked in 2019 after the Comelec rejected his petition to substitute as the first nominee of Duterte Youth Partylist.
Manuel, however, responded promptly to Cardema’s arguments and pointed out her absence in the plenary sessions at the House.
“If Cong. Drixie Cardema has any issues with my privilege speech, I hope she had been attending our plenary sessions in Congress physically and more regularly so we can debate on the topic of my speech,” Manuel said.
“That aside, Duterte Youth doesn't really care about the representation of marginalized sectors. First, it attacks genuine partylists while initially fielding an overaged nominee as youth representative. Second, it disenfranchised PWDs by causing to deprive them of a seat in Congress for eight months now,” Manuel added.