Too old and yet so young

"Not too fast, Ronald."

He tried but failed to run around the election laws. Even at the last minute.

Duterte Youth substitute nominee Ronald Cardema just couldn’t give up his seat as chair of the National Youth Commission he had to forego the chances of being nominated as representative of his own party-list.

But as it was his ambition to land a higher political position, an elected one that is, he had to be a nominee of his own party list, the Duterte Youth. Surprisingly, on the eve of the elections, all nominees of the group, including his wife, mysteriously withdrew—thereby catapulting him as the group’s first nominee.

With the Duterte Youth having secured a seat in the elections, Cardema thought he could legitimately be a member of Congress.

But knowing there was a pending petition against him, for being overaged as a youth representative, Cardema forced his way, taking his oath of office sans a certification of proclamation coming from the Commission on Elections.

Quite cunning. Cardema knew if he is to be considered a legitimate member of the House of Representatives, all electoral protests against him pending before the Comelec would be mooted and all elections protests against him arising from the elections would have to be coursed through the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal, whose resolution of cases is notoriously snail-paced he would have finished his three-year term before a resolution could come his way.

 But not too fast, Ronald. 

Cardema’s case is a pre-election issue and will thus have to remain before the Comelec. Second, Cardema has not been issued a certification of proclamation. Hence, cannot be considered a member of the House and as such, will not be subject to the HRET.

His cunning acts did not escape the scrutiny of the poll body. In fact, Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon described Cardema’s move as as “an attempt to circumvent and defeat the legal qualification prescribed by law, and in complete disregard of the rule of law,” that Cardema might have orchestrated the withdrawal of all five nominees of Duterte Youth.

“The circumstances surrounding the across-the-board withdrawal of all five original nominees and the subsequent nomination of Respondent Cardema a day before the elections…speak resoundingly of a clear attempt, not just to circumvent the law and the rules but also to hide from the electorate Cardema’s ineligibility as a nominee of Duterte Youth,” Guanzon declared in her concurring opinion.

Cardema even tried to “amend” his party list orientation saying Duterte Youth does not represent the youth but the young professionals, thus, is a multi-sectoral group.

Under the Party-list law, anyone who intended to run as a representative of a youth sector should only be between 25 to 30 years old. Cardema was 34 when he filed his application.

Following the said argument, his camp argued that the Duterte Youth is a multi-sector party-list. Given this, the age limit should not be followed in the case of Cardema.

But the Comelec, in its resolution, said it could not find “no reason why the age qualification provided by law for nominees of the youth sector should not be applied to the Respondent.”

In doing so, the Comelec said that Cardema committed “material misrepresentation” which served as the ground for his disqualification.

And unfortunately for him, he could not even seek refuge from the Palace which he thought could very well serve as his ally.

The other day, Malacañang distanced itself from the Comelec decision to cancel his nomination as Duterte Youth representative under the party-list system.

According to Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo, the Comelec is an independent body and that the Palace’s policy is that the decisions of any court or administrative body should be based on facts and evidence presented before them. Cardema’s case was based on such.

And as it is, Cardema is barred from representing the Duterte Youth simply because he is too old to represent the youth sector.

But based from his act, he could easily qualify as a model to the quotation used by late Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson to describe another politician, “So young and yet so… (could somebody finish the statement for me?).