THE Supreme Court (SC) has denied the plea of the Duterte Youth Party-List for the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) to enjoin the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from cancelling the group’s accreditation.
In a two page resolution dated September 30, the Court en banc also would not issue a status quo ante order that could have restored its previous status prior to the cancellation of its registration.
The Court also denied its motion for a special raffle, which was supposed to address the urgency of its petition.
However, the SC ordered the respondents Comelec, Reeya Beatrice Magtalas, Abigail Aleli Tan, Raainah Punzalan, and Aunell Ross Angcos to comment on the Duterte Youth’s main petition within 10 days from notice.
The four private respondents were the ones who petitioned the Comelec to stop the Duterte Youth’s proclamation last May and questioned their registration as a party-list group.
The Court’s order stemmed from the party-list group’s petition filed last September seeking to nullify the June 18 resolution issued by the poll body’s Second Division which cancelled its registration and the August 29 resolution of the Comelec en banc which affirmed the division’s resolution.
The Duterte Youth landed second in the party-list race with a total of 2,338,564 in the national and local elections held last May, entitling them to three seats in the House.
In its petition, the group accused the Comelec of committing ‘grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction’ in upholding the cancellation of their registration.
The party-list group argued that the assailed resolutions barring them from taking a seat in the 20th Congress were ‘contrary to law and jurisprudence’ and effectively disenfranchised more than 2.3 million Filipinos who voted for them in the last elections.
The petition also invoked the doctrine of laches, contending that the challenges raised against the group’s registration were filed too late and should have been barred.
The Comelec has proclaimed Abono, Ang Probinsyano, and Murang Kuryente party-lists to replace the Duterte Youth’s three seats in the House of Representatives.