Election watchdog Kontra Daya welcomed the cancellation of registration of Duterte Youth as a party-list group, as a result prohibiting it from getting three seats in the upcoming 20th Congress.
The group said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) 2nd Division’s decision affirms its own designation of the party-list group as bogus.
Voting 2-1, the division said the party-list’s registration was approved without proper proceedings mandated by the Party-list System Act, agreeing to petitions filed by youth leaders in 2019.
“Though it took more than five years for the Comelec to come up with a resolution, we still welcome this decision and reiterate that Duterte Youth is a bogus partylist,” Kontra Daya convenor Danilo Arao said.
In its Guide to the Party-list Groups Participating in the 2025 Polls released in February 2025, Kontra Daya added that Duterte Youth had ties to military forces.
Meanwhile, ACT Teachers lawmakers also welcomed the poll body’s decision, urging the Comelec en banc to uphold the ruling.
House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro and ACT Teachers Partylist representative-elect Antonio Tinio also urged Comelec to expedite the proclamation of party-lists that could be winners after Duterte Youth’s disqualification.
“The Duterte Youth party-list was never formed to uphold the genuine interests of Filipino youth – it was established as a red-tagging organization designed to benefit the Duterte family and their political machinery,” Rep. Castro said.
Rep.-elect Tinio emphasized the importance of upholding the decision at the en banc level to ensure genuine representation in the party-list system.
“We urge the Comelec en banc to uphold this decision so that truly deserving party-list groups like Gabriela Women’s Party can be proclaimed before June 30 and hit the ground running in serving their constituents,” Tinio said.
READ: Poll watchdog calls on Comelec to disqualify Duterte Youth
Earlier, youth election watchdog Kabataan, Tayo ang Pag-asa (KTAP) said it is time for the poll body to finally disqualify Duterte Youth over misrepresentation of the sector as well as alleged abuse of state resources and circumvention of election laws. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)