Manila: The Supreme Court (SC) has nullified the substitution of Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner Ma. Rowena Amelia Guanzon as the first nominee of the Komunidad ng Pamilya, Pasyente at Persons with Disabilities (P3PWD) party-list, which secured a seat in the 2022 elections. This decision was made in response to a petition challenging her nomination.

According to Philippines News Agency, the 42-page ruling penned by Associate Justice Ricardo Rosario, dated August 20 and received by the Comelec on Wednesday, invalidated the substitution and prohibited the group from renominating Guanzon. The court’s decision declared the Comelec Minute resolution from June 15, 2022, null and void, citing grave abuse of discretion for approving the substitution of nominees from the P3PWD Party-list. Additionally, the court reinforced its restraining order from June 29, 2022, by making it permanent.

The Supreme Court instructed P3PWD to propose new nominees, strictly barring the renomination of those whose substi
tutions were annulled by the decision. The nominations of Rosalie Garcia, Cherie Belmonte-Lim, Donnabel Tenorio, and Rodolfo Villar were also invalidated by the court.

The court emphasized the importance of rules governing nominee substitution, stating that treating these rules as mere guidelines after elections would undermine the exceptional nature of substitution. It warned that such a scenario would discourage parties from presenting nominees with genuine intentions to serve, reducing elections to trivial contests where nominees could be swapped at will.

Furthermore, the court highlighted the significance of the timing of nominee substitutions, stressing that it impacts voters’ rights to be informed about the identities of party-list nominees to make educated choices on election day.

The petition was filed by the Duty to Energize the Republic Through the Enlightenment of the Youth (DUTERTE Youth) Party-list, chaired by Ronald Cardema. The group argued that P3PWD’s substitutions were filed after the dea
dlines stipulated by the Comelec resolution, and claimed that allowing such substitutions could breach corruption laws, given Guanzon’s recent position as a Comelec member involved in approving party-lists for the 2022 elections, including P3PWD.