'Dominant minority party' supposed to be check on admin — De Lima

MANILA, Philippines— Opposition Sen. Leila De Lima on Sunday said the Liberal Party has “every right and reason” to protest the Commission on Elections’ move to name Nacionalista Party as the dominant minority party.

“It’s both a legal and political anomaly,” the detained senator, who is a member of the LP and of the minority bloc at the Senate, said in a handwritten note a day before the elections.

De Lima cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in the 2004 case of Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino against the poll body that “the purpose of according dominant status and representation to a minority party is precisely to serve as an effective check on the majority.”

According to De Lima, the Omnibus Election Code defines the dominant opposition party as “that political party, group or organization or coalition of major national or regional political parties opposed to the majority party, which has the capability to wage a bona fide nationwide campaign as shown by the extent of its organization.”

On Thursday, the Comelec resolved to declare the administration PDP-Laban as the dominant party and declared Nacionalista Party, led by re-electionist Sen. Cynthia Villar as the dominant minority party in the midterm polls. The decision was released just four days ahead of the  midterm polls.

Villar, is currently running under Hugpong ng Pagbabago coalition along with several other PDP-Laban bets. The two parties signed a coalition agreement in May 2016.

De Lima stressed that the election laws used the terms  “dominant opposition party”, “dominant opposition coalition”, and “dominant minority party”, to refer to the party opposite the majority party. She added that it defines minority party as an “effective check on the majority” and the administration.”

“It should not be allied with it,” De Lima, who worked in election law before joining the Commission on Human Rights in 2008, said.

'Comelec used different criteria'

“The criteria used by the Comelec in determining the dominant minority party is the criteria for the determination of the ten major political parties as provided in Sec. 26 of RA 7166 and Sec. 34 of RA 9369,” De Lima cited, adding that the poll body is “clearly wrong.”

“The procedure and criteria for the determination of the dominant majority and dominant minority parties are different from the procedure and criteria for the determination of the ten major political parties,” she furthered.

The Comelec accredited LP, LDP, Nationalist People’s Coalition, United Nationalist Alliance, Lakas-CMD, Workers and Peasants Party, National Unity Party and Aksyong Demokratiko as major political parties.

'Revisit Comelec procedures'

De Lima then called on the Comelec to revisit its procedure for the determination of the dominant and minority parties.

“As it is, its present procedure has resulted in the travesty of democracy, where the administration majority parties have become nothing else but more dominant, and the minority opposition more marginalized than ever before,” she said.

On Friday, Sen. Kiko Pangilinan, LP president, denounced the Comelec’s decision and said the party will bring the matter to court.

“This is absolutely unacceptable. We oppose this. We will oppose before the Supreme Court. No retreat. Never surrender,” he said. —Rosette Adel

READ: Kiko Pangilinan slams decision naming Villar-led NP as minority party