Ex-poll chief supports Ako Bicol protest

MANILA, Philippines - Former Commission on Elections chairman Christian Monsod  aired his support yesterday for the protest of the Ako Bicol (AKB) regional political party on the Comelec’s decision to disqualify it from the party-list elections for being rich.

“Under the present system, they have good and valid arguments presented before the Supreme Court,” he said in an interview.

Monsod, a member of the commission that framed the Constitution, said there is no provision in the charter that prohibits rich members of a marginalized sector from representing their group in Congress. He stressed that the only prohibition is for rich politicians to represent sectors to which they don’t belong.

Last week, AKB filed a petition before the Supreme Court questioning its disqualification by the Comelec, which said the AKB does not belong to the marginalized and underrepresented sectors enumerated in the Constitution and Republic Act 7941, the party-list system law.

AKB Rep. Rodel Batocabe explained that his group contested Comelec’s grounds for disqualification, specifically that they were duplicating the job of the fellow Bicolano lawmakers representing the districts.

“We bring in projects to the entire Bicol region, not only to a single district that our colleagues could not prioritize such as medical mission, scholarship and livelihood projects because their priority is infrastructure projects,” Batocabe said.

Meanwhile, the Comelec said yesterday it is not obliged to follow a 2010 Supreme Court ruling establishing that 1st Consumer’s Alliance for Rural Energy Inc. (1CARE) was qualified as a party-list group.

Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes said the SC ruling is no longer applicable for the mid-term polls next year. 1CARE and the Association of Philippine Electric Cooperatives were disqualified by the Comelec last month because the sector of electrical consumers that they both seek to represent does not exist.

1CARE has two incumbent representatives, Michael Angelo Rivera and Salvador Cabaluna III, at the House of Representatives.– With Sheila Crisostomo