The Komunidad ng Pamilya, Pasyente at Persons with Disabilities (P3PWD) party-list on Sunday filed its certificate of nomination and acceptance (CONA), with retired poll commissioner Rowena Guanzon as its first nominee.
Guanzon said that the group advocates for the rights and welfare of PWDs and their families, specifically pushing for a 5% share of PWDs in the total budget of all local government units and national agencies, including government-owned and controlled corporations.
“Another is social pension or the monthly pension of PWDs from the national government. For LGUs that are 1st class and 2nd class, they should be required also in addition to the national government’s monthly social pension for PWDs, especially those who are home-bound,” she said.
“We want to double budget of special education (SpEd) which now stands only at P500 million. Last year, we fought for the reinstatement of that budget in Senate because the House gave a zero budget to the DepEd for SpEd,” she added.
The former Commission on Elections (Comelec) said that she chose to represent the P3PWD party-list because of her nephew who has autism.
Should she be able to secure a seat in the House, Guanzon said that the public can expect an “extreme” type of lawmaker.
“You put me in Congress, dudugo tenga nila…ilong at tenga [their nose and ears will bleed],” she said.
The P3PWD party-list, which was campaigned for by Guanzon in the 2022 national and local polls, won one seat in the House of Representatives.
Before the P3PWD party-list submitted the documents assigning Guanzon as its new first nominee, National Youth Commission (NYC) Undersecretary Ronald Cardema accused the retired poll official of forcing all the party-list group’s nominees to resign so she can sit in the House of Representatives.
In June 2022, the Supreme Court issued a decision temporarily stopping a Commission on Elections (Comelec) resolution allowing Guanzon to substitute as number one nominee of P3PWD party-list.
The Comelec previously approved in a “majority vote” the request of the party to withdraw the nomination of its original roster of Grace Yeneza, Ira Paulo Pozon, Marianne Heidi Cruz Fullon, Peter Jonas David, and Lily Grace Tiangco.
The en banc has also “given due course” or granted and approved the new list of nominees, with Guanzon as its first nominee. —KG, GMA Integrated News
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