Ako Bicol supporters protest disqualification

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines – More than 10,000 supporters of Ako Bicol (AKB) party-list yesterday protested here the decision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to disqualify the group in the 2013 elections.

Ako Bikol party-list representatives led by Alfredo Garbin said they would challenge the decision before the Supreme Court.

Garbin said the Comelec had already upheld AKB’s accreditation twice and that it garnered more than 1.25 million votes, the most number among party-list groups, in the 2010 polls.

The rally was attended by some 8,000 beneficiaries and scholars of AKB, along with local officials led by Mayor Geraldine Rosal and city administrator Noel Rosal.

Mayor Rosal said AKB has helped the farmers and women groups in the city.

Noel Rosal, for his part, said he wanted the Comelec to see the effects of their decision in disqualifying Ako Bicol.

Angela Logoc, a third-year nursing student at the Bicol University and an AKB scholar, said she wishes to finish her studies but with the disqualification of AKB, she doubts if she can continue her schooling.

Jimnell Boneta, another AKB scholar, urged other scholars not to lose hope but to help AKB to be the topnotcher in the 2013 elections.

AKB has some 2,000 scholars taking up four-year courses, mostly on automotive, through the Global Technology Foundation so they can easily work abroad. Some 3,000 scholars have graduated since 2010.  

In a statement, the AKB said Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III has warned of massive disenfranchisement and vowed to conduct a Senate inquiry into the Comelec decision to disqualify AKB.

Senators Francis Escudero and Gregorio Honasan, who both hail from Bicol, earlier had criticized the Comelec ruling, which they said, unduly prejudiced Ako Bicol as an active representative of a marginalized sector, AKB said in a statement.

AKB said Albay Gov. Joey Salceda also expressed dismay over the Comelec ruling to disqualify the party-list group.

In a six-page resolution, the Comelec ruled that AKB could not participate in next year’s elections since it does not represent or seek to uplift a marginalized and underrepresented sector within the contemplation of the party-list system.

The Comelec is looking at a total of 30 to 40 groups that will lose their accreditation in the upcoming elections. More than 120 party-list groups have applied for renewal of their accreditation.

Also disqualified by the Comelec were the 1st Consumers Alliance for Rural Energy and Association of Philippine Electric Cooperatives which have incumbent representatives in the House of Representatives.

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said he has forwarded to Commissioner Grace Padaca several cases involving the accreditation of party-list groups. He said the vote in these cases was even and Padaca would be the tiebreaker.

Padaca, for her part, gave assurance that any decision she would make with regards to the accreditation or disqualification of party-list groups would be based on law.

“There are many laws to be used as basis. There is an eight-point guideline from the Supreme Court, for example, in accrediting party-lists,” she said. “You cannot go outside of that. You cannot go against the law.” – With Sandy Araneta, Jess Diaz, Michael Punongbayan