P3PWD: TRO vs Comelec resolution allowing Guanzon substitution is moot

The temporary restraining order issued by the Supreme Court against a Commission on Elections resolution allowing the substitution of former Comelec Commissioner Rowan Guanzon as the P3PWD nominee has become moot and academic, the party-list said Friday.

In its comment filed before the High Court, the P3PWD said the TRO was issued on June 29, after the Commission on Elections proclaimed Guanzon and their nominees.

Further, the P3PWD said the TRO was released after copies of the Comelec resolution approving the substitution of the new nominees were furnished to the House of Representatives.

“On the part of Comelec, it had nothing left to do after it issued the subject Comelec resolution and proclaimed respondents P3PWD and Guanzon,” it said.

Guanzon had already taken her oath as representative of the party-list group, which won a seat in the last election. This would give Guanzon a seat at the House of Representatives.

No requisite legal standing

Also according to the party-list, petitioner Duterte Youth failed to show that they had a present and unmistakable right to pray for the enjoinment of the resolution.

The P3PWD argued that the Duterte Youth did not have the requisite legal standing to question the substitution, saying they could not invoke their status as taxpayers as the basis for their legal standing.

Further, it said there was a failure to establish the particular injury, which should be grave and irreparable, that entitled the Duterte Youth to a preliminary injunction.

“Petitioners also cannot file the instant Petition on the basis of their being Filipino citizens. They failed to allege or prove that they personally suffered some actual or threatened injury,” the party-list said.

The party also argued that the Comelec did not commit grave abuse of discretion when it issued the Comelec resolution allowing the substitution. — DVM, GMA News