Only 10 party-list groups won — Comelec

Only 10 out of 162 groups that took part in the party-list elections last May 14 received two percent or more of the total votes nationwide to earn them a seat in the House of Representatives.

However, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Resurreccion Borra said the poll body could only certify the winners as the Supreme Court ordered their proclamation suspended until their qualifications have been reviewed.

"Even if we cannot make any proclamation because of the SC decision for the Comelec to conduct summary, evidentiary hearing within 30 days in order to submit the report to the High Tribunal, we’ll know who are the winners and from that we can certify that subject to the final decision of the SC," he said.

Borra said the tribunal’s order has prevented the Comelec from issuing a certificate of proclamation to the winning party-list groups and that the poll body will just certify that they had won a certain percentage of votes to qualify them for a House seat.

"Some of them have been re-elected and they don’t have a copy of certificate of winning, they might be kicked out from the their congressional room in the House so we’ll issue a certification along that line to be fair to them," he said.

However, Borra said the winning party-list groups can be proclaimed before the 12th Congress opens as the review of their qualifications would have been completed by then.

The winning party-list groups are:

• Bayan Muna with 1,437,018 votes or 12.8 percent of the total nationwide votes of 9,523,990.

• Mamamayan Ayaw sa Droga (MAD) with 1,125,719 votes or 10.08 percent.

• Association of Philippine Electric Cooperatives (APEC) with 635,404 votes or 5.6 percent.

• Veterans Federation Party (VFP) with 476,361 votes or 4.2 percent.

• Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) with 343,621 votes or 3.0 percent.

• Luzon Farmers Party (BUTIL) with 285,382 votes or 2.5 percent.

• Lakas NUCD-UMDP with 283,671 votes or 2.5 percent;

• Akbayan! Citizen’s Action Party (AKBAYAN) with 269,094 votes or 2.4 percent;

• Citizen’s Battle Against Corruption (CIBAC) with 267,616 votes or 2.3 percent; and

• Buhay Hayaan Yumabong (BUHAY) with 236,420 votes or 2.1 percent.

Having received 12.8 percent and 10.8 percent of the total party-list votes, Bayan Muna and MAD will each get three House seats, while APEC and VP can each send two representatives to Congress for receiving more than four percent but not six percent of the total party-list votes.

Under the law, a party-list group gets a seat for every two percent of the total nationwide votes that it had received in every election.

Militant groups called yesterday on the Comelec to immediately proclaim the winning party-list groups based on the Supreme Court ruling limiting the party-list system to marginalized and under-represented sectors.

Nathaniel Santiago, Bayan Muna secretary general, told reporters various party-list groups are taking to the streets next week to pressure the Comelec to resolve the disqualification cases against allegedly bogus party-list groups.

"Comelec infighting, plus Comelec Chairman Alfredo Benipayo’s absence, are aggravating the serious delay in the proclamation of party-list winners," he said.

The poll body must make a ruling before the first working day of the 12th Congress on Monday, he added.

On the other hand, Gerry Corpuz, information officer of Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said in a statement the winning party-list groups should be proclaimed not later than today so their representatives could assume office along with other congressmen on July 1.

"The Comelec should not deprive deserving winners to wait for a long time and therefore deprive their constituents of patriotic service," he said.

The Supreme Court has tossed back to the Comelec a petition filed by Bayan Muna to disqualify major political parties from taking part in the party-list elections. — With reports from Romel Bagares, Mayen Jaymalin