The Commission on Elections (Comelec) Second Division has canceled the registration of the Duterte Youth party-list.
Photo: Duterte Youth Party-list/Facebook
According to reports, Comelec Chairman George Garcia said the division voted 2-1 in favor of the cancellation, following a 2019 petition that questioned the eligibility of the party-list’s nominees. The petition cited issues related to age qualifications as well as non-compliance with publication and public hearing requirements.
In a resolution signed on June 18, the Comelec declared that Duterte Youth’s registration is void ab initio, or void from the beginning, due to its failure to meet the jurisdictional requirements for publication and hearing.
“It is true that party-list organizations have the freedom to choose their nominees, often through their own internal mechanisms. However, this freedom is not without limits. While the Court recognizes party autonomy, party-list groups must still operate within statutory framework. Unarguably, Section 9, R.A. 7941 listed the qualifications of party-list nominees, including the highly disputed age qualification of at least 25 but not more than 35 years of age on the day of the election,” the decision noted.
In May, the Comelec suspended the proclamation of the Duterte Youth party-list, which placed second with over two million votes in the 2025 midterm elections.
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