Supreme Court stops party-list group from getting House seat

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has stopped a party-list group from sitting a representative in Congress.

In a resolution, the SC affirmed a decision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to exclude Cocofed from the party-list groups allowed a slot in the House of Representatives based on an SC ruling last April 21 revising the formula for sectoral representation in Congress.

After the SC voided the creation of the province of Shariff Kabunsuan, the total number of legislative districts was reduced from 220 to 219.

As a result,the SC adjusted and reduced the number of congressional seats for party-list groups from 55 to 54

The SC said the adjustment in the percentage of votes of party-list groups was also based on the disqualification of party-list group Filipinos for Peace, Justice, and Progress Movement (FPJPM) in July last year.

FPJPM’s disqualification resulted in the reduction of the total number of votes cast in the 2007 party-list elections from 15,950,900 to 15,723,764.

Cocofed was declared winner by the SC in an April 21 ruling but was not proclaimed by Comelec because of readjustment in computation of percentage votes of party-list groups.

The Comelec had already proclaimed 51 party-list representatives.

The proclamation of three others — one for Alyansa ng Labang Filipino (ALIF) and two for Bagong Alyansang Tagapagtaguyod ng Adhikain ng Sambayanan (BATAS) — was deferred pending resolution of cases involving cancellation of their registration.

Last April 21, the SC unanimously voted to declare unconstitutional the two-percent threshold in the distribution of additional party-list seats.

The SC upheld the provision of Republic Act 794, the Party-List System Act requiring a total of 55 seats for party-list groups in the House.

Twenty-three representatives from 17 party-list groups have been declared winners by the Comelec in the 2007 elections.

The decision was written by Associate Justice Antonio Carpio.      — Edu Punay