Duterte Youth destroyed its own case

📷: Duterte Youth Chairman Ronald Cardema

Duterte Youth sat at the House of Representatives for more than five years based on the protection, coddling and direction of the administration of the unlamented detained ex-president Rodrigo Duterte. There is no defense for Duterte Youth, whose first nominee Ronald Cardema, who sat at the Lower House when he was already 34-years-old and disqualified to represent the youth.

For being overaged and for clashing with commissioners like Aiza Seguerra and Dingdong Dantes, Cardema was drummed out of the National Youth Commission (NYC). An audit also showed financial management during his incumbency, and the Marcos Jr. government should be running after him. To show that he was more than a “youthful” apparatchik of the shadowy Duterte faction’s campaign to kick out the Malacanang tenant, Cardema also turned his salty language into bigger fireworks by filing an impeachment case against Marcos Jr. on May 8, 2025, when the House of Representatives was not in session. Pity the poor Cardemas, for they do not know the rules and are still making heads or tails about what they are doing.

To put the issue in perspective, Kabataan, Tayo ang Pag-asa (KTAP), a national youth-led electoral watchdog led by Brell Lacerna, wrote back that Ronald and his wife have no business castigating the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for suspending the proclamation of Duterte Youth as a winning party-list. In fact, the Comelec did not rule on the Sept. 3, 2019 petition of KTAP, represented by Reeya Magtalas, Abigail Tan, Raainah Punzalan and Aunell Ross Angcos, through Atty. Emil Marañon III, to disqualify Duterte Youth. That Cardema is now yakking against Kabataan party-list as if it was the mastermind of an elaborate ouster plot “is nothing more than a red herring meant to deflect public attention and mislead voters. Cardema should stop peddling false narratives and respect the legal process. This is not harassment. This is accountability.”

In fact, Comelec sat on the petition since 2019, and the poll body cannot be accused of grave abuse of discretion for not touching the case until Cardema’s boss, Rodrigo Duterte, was tucked away in his spartan cell at the Scheveningen Prison in The Hague. Cardema doesn’t get his facts straight and deliberately distorts facts to suit his relentless black propaganda. Comelec’s action is long overdue, Lacerna argued, “and a necessary step to prevent the continued undermining of our electoral system’s integrity.” The case to cancel Duterte Youth’s registration had been submitted for resolution on Jan. 2, 2020 after Cardema and his allies failed to appear in the 2019 hearing, submitted not an iota of evidence, and not a sentence was written and submitted to qualify as their defense.

“For over five years, they have benefited from inaction—securing seats in Congress despite a pending legal challenge to their very existence as a party-list organization. But jurisdictional defects do not disappear with time. They are not cured by inaction. They are not waived. They are not subject to prescription, mistake, estoppel, or Cardema’s tired cries of ‘harassment,’” Lacerna explained. “No amount of military posturing or electoral grandstanding can sanitize the fact that Duterte Youth’s participation in this election is void ab initio. Even if 2.3 million votes were cast in their favor, Section 211(19) of the Omnibus Election Code is clear: Votes for a non-candidate must be treated as stray votes and excluded from the canvass. The Comelec cannot and must not proclaim an entity that is not—and never was—a legitimate candidate,” he added.

Atty. Maranon and KTAP argued that the crux of the matter is simple but damning: “Duterte Youth has never completed the mandatory registration process required under the Constitution and Republic Act No. 7941. It never published its Petition for Registration. And without publication, there was never jurisdiction. Duterte Youth is not—and has never been—validly registered. It has no legal standing to participate in the elections, much less be proclaimed. This is not a technicality. This is a fatal jurisdictional defect.” Cardema harked back to the fact that his group has served in Congress for two terms and was allowed to run again. In short, like the Dutertes, he thinks that the Duterte Youth is entitled to have seats at the Lower House for its overaged representatives and one with a fraudulent submission.

But prior proclamations—based on oversight or delay—do not legalize what was illegal from the beginning. Proclamations cannot breathe life into a fatally defective registration. As the law holds: ‘What is void ab initio produces no legal effect,’” Lacerna maintained. Rather than attacking the COMELEC, Duterte Youth should answer the case on its merits—if they can. But that ship may have already sailed. They failed to appear. They failed to defend. And now, they cry foul when the law begins to catch up,” KTAP argued. Democracy is not merely about winning votes. It is also about following the rules that make elections credible and fair. What Duterte Youth seeks is not justice—it is exemption from the law.

If we were to respect the will of the people, then we must first respect the rules that define who the people may vote for. The suspension of their proclamation is not a violation of democracy. It is its defense, KTAP stressed. Comelec must resolve the petition without further delay. Until then, Duterte Youth has no right to be proclaimed, and no entitlement to speak in the name of the people they deceived. To add more ammunition to the case against Duterte Youth, commentator Tonyo Cruz reported that Duterte Youth Rep. Drixie Suarez “Cardema” is a sister of Dacielle Marie Suarez Cardema, Cardema’s wife. It becomes a weird show for the Comelec to have accepted the certificate of nomination and acceptance (CONA) of Dacielle since her surname is Suarez and not Cardema. The one who notarized her submission must likewise be put on the griller. First, Cardema lied about his age. Second, another nominee lied about her surname. Fraud is fraud and a lie is a lie, like the offense committed by a politician who was ordered by the US Embassy to surrender his passport and visa for misrepresentation.