It appears the Supreme Court in the Philippines issued at ruling on the 21st permitting 32 new party-list representatives to take their seats in the House immediately.
32 more party-list solons OK’d
THE Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday declared as unconstitutional the 2-percent threshold provision in the distribution of the additional seats for winning party-list groups.
In a 35-page decision penned by Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, the Court nullified the resolution of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) issued on August 3, 2007, that denied the petition of party-list group Banat to proclaim the full number of party-list representatives provided by the Constitution.
The Court en banc held that the second clause of Section 11 (b) of Republic Act (RA) 7941, or “An Act Providing for the Election of Party-List Representatives Through the Party List-System, and Appropriating Funds Therefor,” prevents the full implementation of the constitutional provision which gives party-list groups 20 percent of the total seats in the House of Representatives.
“The 2-percent threshold presents an unwarranted obstacle to the full implementation of Section 5[2], Article VI of the Constitution and prevents the attainment of the broadest possible representation of party, sectoral or group interests in the House of Representatives,” the SC ruling said.
The decision, in effect, paved the way for the representation of 19 more party-list groups by 32 additional House representatives from the present 17 party-list groups with 23 representatives....
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In its ruling, the SC maintained that the party-list election has four unbreakable parameters as clearly stated in the Veterans decision.
These include the 20-percent allocation in the membership of the House of Representatives; the 2-percent threshold; three-seat limit, and proportional representation.
However, the Court said the formula in Veterans has flaws in its mathematical interpretation of the term “proportional representation,” which compelled it to revisit the formula for the allocation of additional seats to party-list organizations.
In determining the allocation of seats for party-list representatives under Section 11 of RA 7941, the Court said following procedure shall be observed:
• The parties, organizations, and coalitions shall be ranked from the highest to the lowest based on the number of votes they garnered during the elections.
• The parties, organizations and coalitions receiving at least 2 percent of the total votes cast for the party-list system shall be entitled to one guaranteed seat each.
• Those garnering sufficient number of votes shall be entitled to additional seats in proportion to their total number of votes until all the additional seats are allocated.
• Each party, organization or coalition shall be entitled to not more than three seats.
The Court noted that in computing the additional seats, the guaranteed seats shall no longer be included because they have already been allocated, at one seat each, to every 2-percenter.
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