Banat formula to be used in computing party-list seats

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will still implement the Supreme Court’s (SC) “Banat” formula in computing the number of seats that winning party-list groups will occupy at the House of Representatives.

“It would still be the same formula,” said Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista in an ambush interview yesterday at the canvassing centers at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City. ?

The statement was made in reaction to the petition of some party-list groups, led by An Waray, asking the poll body to come up with a new formula to prevent a misappropriation of seat allocation.

Under the law, party-list groups shall occupy 59 seats or 20 percent of the seat at the House. Each group, however, is limited to only three seats.

Based on the SC ruling in the party-list group Banat vs Comelec case in 2009, the groups will be ranked from highest to lowest depending on the number of votes they received in the elections.

There are two rounds of seat allocation.  In the first round, the groups receiving at least two percent of the votes cast for the party-list are guaranteed one House seat.

 For the second round, the additional seats – or the remaining seats after allocation of the guaranteed seats – will be distributed to the groups, including those that received less than two percent of the total votes.