SC junks prohibition on losing bets as party-list nominees

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court (SC) has declared as unconstitutional the prohibition on losing candidates being included in the list of nominees for party-list representatives in the next elections, as provided under the laws and Commission on Elections (Comelec) rules.

In full session on Tuesday, the SC granted the petitions for certiorari and prohibition filed by politicians Catalina Pizzaro and Glen Albano to assail the constitutionality of the Party-List System Act and Comelec Resolution 10717. Both ran under the party-list system in the 2019 national elections.

Under the twin statutes, a person who has lost in the immediately preceding elections is barred from being included in the list of nominees for party-list representatives for the next polls.

Pizzaro and Albano argued that Congress does not have the power to “add additional qualifications set forth in Section 6, Article VI of the  1987 Constitution with respect to party-list representatives.”

In granting their petitions, the SC declared invalid and unconstitutional the phrase “a person who has lost his bid for elective office in the immediately preceding election,” under Section 8 of the Party-List System Act and the phrases “have lost in their bid for an elective office in the May 13, 2019, National and Local Elections” and “or a person who has lost his bid for an elective office in the May 13, 2019 National and Local Elections,” under Sections 5(d) and 10, respectively, of Comelec Resolution 10717.

“The Court found that the prohibition placed on losing candidates violates the constitutional guaranty of substantive due process as it effectively intrudes on the right of losing candidates in the immediately preceding elections from participating in the present elections,” the SC wrote in a press briefer.

“…The State cannot require eligibility for public office to be conditioned on a candidate’s ill performance in the previous election, nor may such performance be used as a rubric to gauge the person’s ability to serve,” it added.

Sought for comment, Comelec Chairman George Garcia fully agreed with the high court decision.

“Agree 100 percent. I have the same position then and now,” Garcia told reporters in a Viber message. – Robertzon Ramirez