Comelec asked: Proclaim Ating Guro as winner

MANILA, Philippines - Ating Guro yesterday asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to proclaim it as one of the winners in the party-list race and to reserve one seat for it in the House of Representatives.

In a Petition for Correction of Manifest Error, Ating Guro said that Comelec should void the proclamation and pronouncement of the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) “as regards to the additional seat of COOP-NATCCO” and to proclaim it as one of the winners.

Ating Guro complained that they were supposed to get one seat based on the “Comelec-prepared program of proclamation, draft canvass report and seat allocation” released at 10:24 a.m. last May 19 and in the national tally sheet released at 6:51 p.m. on the same day.

However, during the actual proclamation around 7 p.m., Ating Guro noted the Comelec “suddenly” gave two seats for COOP-NATCCO which finally removed it from the winning circle.

“Ating Guro asks the Comelec to correct the error in the NBOC Resolution No. 008-16 by allocating only one guaranteed seat in favor of COOP-NATCCO and allocating the  remaining 35 seats in favor of the parties next in rank to COOP-NATCCO, beginning with AKBAYAN up to ATING GURO; and to annul the proclamation and pronouncement of the NBOC as regards to the additional seat of COOP-NATCCO; and to proclaim Ating Guro as one of the winners,” read the petition. 

Ating Guro said the Comelec erred in giving its seat to COOP-NATCCO based on the Banat formula prescribed in a Supreme Court ruling in 2009, and that in the Banat formula, COOP-NATCCO got only 0.9750 of the votes cast for partylist groups so it is not entitled to an additional seat.

“This application gives us a product, which is not a whole integer. Thus, COOP-NATCCO is not entitled to an additional seat,” Ating Guro said. “Herein lies the manifest error, which, if not corrected by the respondent NBOC, will amount to grave injustice on the part of Petitioner.” 

Ating Guro said without an additional seat for COOP-NATCCO, the 35 remaining seats would have meant that groups from AKBAYAN to Ating Guro would have one seat each.