Youth leaders filed a new petition at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on May 8 seeking the cancellation of the Duterte Youth Party-list’s registration due to its repeated and relentless Red-tagging. If Comelec grants the petition, the pro-Duterte party will not be able to seat a representative in the House of Representatives even if it wins.

Leading the petition were University of the Philippines Student Regent Francesca Duran, Polytechnic University of the Philippines Student Regent Troy Cabangon, and Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines National Coordinator Rachelle Junsay. The National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) acted as their legal counsel.

According to the petition, the party should be stripped of its registration because it Red-tags or links progressive senatorial candidates and party-list nominees to the armed revolutionary movement. They said this violates COMELEC Resolution 11116 and Supplemental Resolution No. 11127, which prohibit any labeling such as Red-tagging that endangers groups and individuals during the election.

The petitioners collected seven public statements by Duterte chairperson Youth Ronald Cardema released from February to April, during the campaign period. These contained Cardema’s outright Red-tagging, which he had been conducting relentlessly even before the election. He spread these statements on social media.

“How can there be change if questioning those in power is immediately demonized?” Duran said. The UP Student Regent was referring to progressive party-lists who are silenced using Red-tagging for their stance and statements against the abuses of those in government.

Duran added that this practice endangers not only candidates. Many UP students reportedly also experience Red-tagging, outright harassment, and other types of human rights violations coming directly from state forces.

According to Cabangon, Red-tagging is a tactic of Cardema and Duterte Youth to poison the minds of the youth and drag down their rival parties. “[He does this] just to win an election without clear proposed bills and platforms to address the urgent needs of the youth, the constituency they supposedly represent,” the PUP Student Regent said.

Aside from the Red-tagging case, the two regents criticized the party’s misrepresentation of the interests and welfare of the youth. The party is among the 55.1% or 86 out of 156 registered parties for the party-list elections that come from political dynasties, big businesses, and the military or police; face corruption cases, have doubtful advocacies, or insufficient publicly available information.

In April, Kabataan Tayo ang Pag-asa (KTAP) filed a Motion to Urgently Resolve in the earlier disqualification case against Duterte Youth that has been pending since 2019.