(Photo from Duterte Youth Partylist)
“This ruling favorable to Duterte Youth is a travesty to the party-list system, weakening its spirit as a space for marginalized sectors to take power. The Supreme Court’s decision to side with Duterte Youth’s proclamation, despite pending legal questions with COMELEC, is a blow to genuine youth representation,” Akbayan Youth chairperson Dr. RJ Naguit said in a statement.
He reminded the public that President Rodrigo Duterte’s allies in Congress threatened to defund the Commission on Elections (Comelec) if Duterte Youth is not proclaimed as a legitimate party-list group with at least one seat in Congress.
Several progressive groups denounced the move by the Department of National Defense (DND) that reportedly terminated a 30-year agreement that prohibits any military and police presence inside the campuses of the University of the Philippines (UP).
Some progressive groups have raised concerns over the renewed push by lawmakers for Charter change to amend the “restrictive” economic provisions in the 1987 Constitution.
Published December 16, 2020, 1:31 PM
The bill filed by the Duterte Youth Partylist reviving the anti-subversion law seeking to outlaw the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), and political arm,the National Democratic Front (NDF), reeks of desperation, an activist group said.
(Anakbayan)
According to Anakbayan, the House Bill 8231 or the Anti-CPP-NPA-NDF Act of 2021, the proposed measure will “legalize arrest based on belief and mere suspicion.”
“They know how baseless their accusations are and how their supposed evidences will not hold water in court,” said Anakbayan secretary general Vinz Simon.
The party’s representative Ducielle Cardema, wife of Commissioner Ronald Cardema of the National Youth Commission, filed the bill on Monday.