DQ cases suspend Duterte Youth, BH proclamations

REPRESENTING SECTORS The party list groups who won during the May 12 midterm elections are proclaimed by the Commission on Elections en banc, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, at the Manila Hotel Tent on Monday. Their representatives will occupy 63 seats in the 20th Congress. —LYN RILLON

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has deferred the proclamation of two of the 54 party list groups that won the 63 party list seats in the House of Representatives in the recently concluded 2025 midterm elections, pending the resolution of cases filed against them.

Sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), the poll body suspended on Monday the proclamation of the three nominees of Duterte Youth, which ranked second in the party list race with 2,338,564 votes or 5.57 percent, and Bagong Henerasyon (BH), which secured a seat by placing 39th with 319,803 or 0.76 percent of the votes.

The proclamation for the 52 other party lists that won a total of 60 seats proceeded at the Tent City of the Manila Hotel.

“Considering the serious allegations raised in the petitions which involve grave violation of election laws, the [NBOC] resolves to suspend the proclamation of Duterte Youth and BH party lists, until the speedy and judicious resolution of the petitions filed before the clerk of the commission,” Comelec Chair George Garcia said as he read NBOC Resolution No. 14-25.

Garcia explained that the suspension of the proclamation did not mean that the two party lists were already disqualified.

“They won. But their proclamation was deferred with respect to due process,” the Comelec chief noted, adding that the pending cases against them can still be resolved by the Comelec before June 30, when all proclaimed winners during the midterm elections will assume office.

“It will be prudent for us to resolve the pending cases first so their proclamation will not go to waste,” he added.

Should the Comelec en banc decide in favor of the petitioners—and if the Supreme Court upholds its ruling—then the votes for Duterte Youth shall be considered “stray… and will be excluded in the computation of the party list seats allocations,” according to election lawyer Emil Marañon.

He said this would also result in “not only opening seats, but admitting new party list groups to the winning circle.”

Court challenge

Duterte Youth and BH said they would challenge in the Supreme Court the abrupt decision of the NBOC not to proclaim them as winners.

The first case against Duterte Youth was filed in 2019 by youth leaders Reeya Beatrice Magtalas, Abigail Aleli Tan, Raainah Punzalan and Aundell Ross Angcos, with former Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. and Marañon as counsels. Brillantes died in 2020.

They argued that Duterte Youth’s registration as party list should be voided since the Comelec en banc approved it without the publication of its petition and without holding a proper hearing on its application in violation of Republic Act No. 7941 or the Party-List System Act.

The petition was revived in March with the petitioners filing an urgent motion for the Comelec to finally resolve the nearly six-year-old petition.

Another petition filed on May 8 also called for the cancellation of the registration and disqualification of Duterte Youth for its “repeated and malicious” Red-tagging of other candidates, which is in violation of Comelec Resolution No. 11127.

The petition was filed by Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines national coordinator Rachelle Pagsanjan Junsay, Polytechnic University of the Philippines student regent Michael Troy Cabangon and University of the Philippines student regent Francesca Mariae Duran, with the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers as their counsel.

Belated complaint

The petition for disqualification against BH was filed on May 14, or two days after the polls, by lawyer Russell Stanley Geronimo.

He accused incumbent BH Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy and its nominees led by Roberto Nazal Jr. of violating the Omnibus Election Code, particularly Sections 261(i) for intervention of public officers and employees, and 261(o) for use of public funds, money deposited in trust, equipment, facilities owned or controlled by the government for an election campaign.

In a statement, BH party list said it had not received, seen or was informed of the case against it, but it already filed in the Comelec an urgent motion for it to proceed with the party list’s proclamation.

“How can we be held to account for an accusation that remains invisible—unnamed, unheard and unexplained?” it added.

BH said that the Comelec’s own rules were clear that a proclamation should proceed unless a case was resolved with finality.

“Bagong Henerasyon stands ready to respond to any complaint, anytime, anywhere. But until such a complaint is properly disclosed and due process is afforded, the suspension of our proclamation—and the disenfranchisement of 319,803 voters—is not only unjust. It is unconstitutional,” it added.

Winners

Based on the national certificate of canvass, ranking first among them was Akbayan, which garnered 2,779,621 or 6.63 percent of the total 41,658,790 total votes for the 2025 party list race.

EMERGING ON TOP The party list Akbayan, which received more than 2.7 million votes and the leader in the party list race in the May 12 elections, will get three seats in the House of Representatives. Their three nominees—lawyer Chel Diokno, Perci Cendaña and Dadah Kiram Ismula—are joined by their relatives, Akbayan officials and supporters during their proclamation on Monday. —LYN RILLON

It was a turnaround for Akbayan, which faced delisting after failing to secure a seat in the 2019 and 2022 elections. It was saved, however, when the Supreme Court last year affirmed the cancellation of the An Waray party list’s registration and proclaimed it as the winner of the last of the 63 party list seats in the 2022 polls.

Akbayan and Tingog, with 1,822,708 votes (4.34 percent), secured the three maximum seats for the party list election.

The party list Tingog, represented by House Assistant Majority Leader Jude Acidre, is also entitled to three seats by placing third in the race with more than 1.82 million votes. —LYN RILLON

The fourth to sixth ranked party lists, namely 4PS (1,469,571; 3.5 percent), ACT-CIS (1,239,930; 2.96 percent), and Ako Bicol (1,073,119; 2.56 percent), obtained two seats each.

The rest—from seventh place Uswag Ilonggo to 54th place Philreca—each obtained a seat.

Seat allocation question

Meanwhile, OFW party list lawmaker Marissa Magsino on Monday vowed to question in the Supreme Court her group’s exclusion from the poll body’s list of those getting seats in the 20th Congress.

“We will fight for the right to representation of OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) and seafarers all the way to the Supreme Court. Our voice should not be denied in Congress simply because of an inequitable and disproportionate distribution of seats,” Magsino said in a statement.

The OFW party list was not in the Comelec’s list of groups to be proclaimed based on votes cast in the midterm elections.

According to Magsino, the OFW party list will challenge the Comelec’s seat allocation system.

The lawmaker noted that the disparity in seat allocation has sparked conversation among election lawyers and sectoral advocates, particularly where some sectoral groups with notable vote shares were not granted representation. —WITH REPORTS FROM JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE AND INQUIRER RESEARCH