MANILA — An official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said she wants a stricter policy in the accreditation of party-list organizations that are looking to represent marginalized sectors at the House of Representatives in the May 2022 polls.
“We have been very liberal with some groups. We are going to be strict. I am going to be strict now. That is the result of this issue (of former National Youth Commission Chairperson Ronald Cardema). Tell the Party-List Coalition that I am going to be very strict now with registration,” Commissioner Ma. Rowena Amelia Guanzon said in a statement Monday.
At the same time, she noted that she will ask other commissioners to do the same in approving accreditations of party-list groups.
“If they do not meet the documentary requirements, or they lack the requirements, I will deny their registration,” Guanzon said.
Aside from adopting strict rules, she is also looking to introduce additional requirements which include the use of names of popular politicians as names of the party-list group.
“Those party-list groups, which use the name of any politician or living person, must have the consent of that person under oath,” the Comelec commissioner added.
She said that they will also require groups to disclose upon registration their sex-disaggregated data.
“How many men? How many women? How many LGBTs?” Guanzon added.
It can be recalled that the Comelec First Division has cancelled the nomination of Cardema as the first nominee of Duterte Youth party-list for being overage.
On August 7, a day after he was declared as ineligible to represent the organization, the chairperson of the party-list group submitted a new set of nominees.
Based on their certificate of nomination, Cardema is the first nominee while his wife, Ducielle Marie is the second nominee.