The Duterte Youth Partylist announced Wednesday it will file a petition with the Supreme Court challenging the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) decision to disqualify the group from its congressional seat.

The partylist, which secured more than 2.3 million votes in the 2025 midterm elections, said it would file the petition at 3:30 p.m. on 3 September.

“Before, it was just money being plundered; now, even the millions of sacred votes of Filipinos are being taken,” Duterte Youth partylist chairperson Ronald Cardema said. “The loser is being made to win, and the clear winner is being forced by Comelec to lose.”

According to Cardema, Comelec disregarded its electoral victory despite securing the majority of votes in local absentee voting among police, military and government personnel, as well as in overseas absentee voting in more than 50 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany Canada and Japan.

The Duterte Youth also expressed gratitude to commissioner Rey Bulay, who issued a dissenting opinion on the disqualification.

It also said that Bulay concluded there were no violations, citing the Comelec, not the partylist, was legally responsible for the one-page publication requirement under the Partylist Law (RA 7941).

The group argued that Comelec is trying to “twist the law” and criticized the body for allegedly allowing other candidates with serious legal issues to run and be proclaimed.

“We have never seen lawyers like this who mock the law,” the partylist said. “Comelec thinks Filipinos are stupid, so they are stealing the votes of millions of Filipinos.”