The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has temporarily suspended the proclamation of two party-lists due to unresolved issues, Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia announced on Monday.
According to Garcia, the National Board of Canvassers will disclose the names of the affected party-lists at a later date. He revealed that one of these groups had secured three seats in the 20th Congress, a detail that narrows down the possibilities to Akbayan, Duterte Youth, and Tingog—currently the only party-lists with three seats each.
However, Garcia mentioned that one of the party-lists in question has been entangled in a pending case since 2019, a situation that points to Duterte Youth. The group has faced ongoing legal challenges, including a petition filed in March by Kabataan Tayo ang Pag-asa, which called on Comelec to cancel Duterte Youth’s registration, citing misleading information about the ages of their nominees.
The controversy dates back to the 2019 elections when Duterte Youth nominee Ronald Cardema, who was then 34 years old, was disqualified for exceeding the age limit for youth representatives. The Party-List System Act mandates that youth representatives must be no older than 30 on election day.
