‘Guanzon may still run as party-list nominee’

MANILA, Philippines — Former poll commissioner Rowena Guanzon may still run as a party-list nominee in the May 2025 midterm elections despite a Supreme Court (SC) ruling declaring null and void her substitution as the first nominee of the P3PWD party-list, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Guanzon’s bid to run again as the first nominee of Komunidad ng Pamilya, Pasyente at Persons with Disabilities party-list is not affected by the ruling, Comelec Chairman George Garcia said yesterday.

“She was nominated by the party-list. No one filed a petition to cancel her nomination. Therefore, she’s still their number one nominee,” he noted.

Garcia said the Comelec is no longer filing a motion for reconsideration and the new nominee will be proclaimed as soon as P3PWD submits the list.

“It is unfair for the party-list that until now, they do not have Congress representation. We will immediately proclaim them so they can catch up with the term of office,” he said.

A team will be formed by the Comelec to guide the drafting of new rules on party-list elections.

The new guidelines must be consistent with the SC’s decision on party-list nominees’ substitution and define the Comelec’s administrative and quasi-judicial functions, Garcia said.

The SC ruling has cleared what is considered gray areas in party-list elections, he noted.

The Duterte Youth party-list group had filed a petition to declare null and void the substitution of P3PWD nominees.

In a decision promulgated on Aug. 20, the SC granted the petition that challenged a Comelec resolution allowing Guanzon as one of the substitutes to P3PWD’s original nominees, who all resigned after the 2022 polls were concluded.

Aside from Guanzon, the high court also nullified the nominations of Rosalie Garcia, Cherie Belmonte-Lim, Donnabel Tenorio and Rodolfo Villar.

In resolving the case, the SC said the Comelec committed grave abuse of discretion when it approved the substitution of P3PWD nominees beyond the deadline.

P3PWD has been ordered to submit additional nominees for the duration of the 19th Congress, but they are barred from renominating those whose substitutions have been invalidated.

The ruling was penned by Associate Justice Ricardo Rosario. Associate Justices Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa and Jhosep Lopez dissented from the decision. – Daphne Galvez