Party-list winners known today?

The Commission on Elections may proceed today with a partial proclamation of winners in the May 14 elections' party-list race, Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos said yesterday.

"We'll discuss up to what number we can proclaim," Abalos said in Filipino. "It doesn't take so much preparation to proclaim winning party-lists. We'll not proclaim the nominees, but their party-list (groups)."

Abalos said the Comelec might conduct a partial proclamation once 17 million votes have been canvassed.

"So far, close to 15 million (votes) have already been canvassed," he said. "We think it should be more than 16 million. To be very safe, we'll put it at 17 million."

Based on the latest tally of the Comelec dated June 15, party-list group Buhay Hayaan Yumabong topped the party-list race with 1.1 million votes, followed by Bayan Muna with over 945,000 votes.

Abalos said the Comelec will only proclaim party-list groups that garnered at least 340, 000 votes or two percent of the 17 million votes, as prescribed in the Party List Election Law.

Other groups that bagged two percent of the votes are the Citizens Battle Against Corruption (CIBAC) with 744,000 votes; Gabriela Women's Party with 590,000 votes; Association of Philippine Electric Cooperatives with 510,000 votes; Advocacy for Teacher Empowerment Through Action, Cooperation and Harmony Towards Educational Reforms Inc. (A-Teacher) with 462,000 votes; Akbayan with 444,000 votes; Luzon farmers Party (Butil) with 404,000 votes; Bagong Alyansang Tagapagtaguyod ng Adhikaing Sambayanan (Batas) with 379,000 votes; and Cooperative-Natco Network party with 359,000 votes.

Abalos also dared party-list organizations to challenge before the Supreme Court and not with the Comelec the implementation of the so-called Panganiban formula in this election.

On April 13, the Supreme Court junked a petition by CIBAC seeing to implement the Comelec's so-called 2-4-6 formula in determining the seats that can be occupied by party-lists in the House of Representatives.

Instead, the SC opted to implement the Panganiban formula, named after former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban, who penned the document. This states that only the topnotcher in the party-list polls is entitled to a maximum of three seats in the House.

Additional seats can be occupied by those who garner more than two percent of votes that they get.

Under the Comelec formula, on the other hand, a party-list group is entitled to one seat for every two percent of votes that they get.

Groups like the Batas and A-Teacher have filed petitions with the Comelec, questioning the Panganiban formula.

According to Abalos, the groups are barking up the wrong tree in bringing their concerns to the Comelec.

“They have to go to the Supreme Court. We cannot contradict the Supreme Court. Why us? It’s not our formula - that’s why it’s called ‘Panganiban formula.’ The decisions of the Supreme Court are considered the ‘laws of the land’ and we are just implementing them,” Abalos said.

Meanwhile, party-list Rep. Eulogio “Amang” Magsaysay of the Alliance of Volunteer Educators (AVE) representing teachers, yesterday urged the Comelec to disqualify the A-Teacher party-list group because it will only serve the interests of private schools.


By Sheila Crisostomo and Delon Porcalla, p.6 The Philippine Star, June 26, 2007.