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By William B. Depasupil, Reporter
THE Supreme Court will put to test Tuesday in an
oral argument the validity of its own earlier ruling relating to the
allocation of party-list seats in the House of Representatives.
The oral argument is also meant to settle
the contrasting opinions of the Commission on Elections (Comelec)
and the party-list groups concerning their interpretations on
several provisions of Party-List System Law, or Republic Act 7941.
The High Court, which is holding its traditional
summer session in Baguio City, has defined five questions to be
discussed at the oral arguments.
The questions were raised in two separate
petitions by party-list groups Barangay Association for National Advancement
and Transparency (BANAT), and Bayan Muna, A Teachers and Abono in
two separate petitions.
Said petitions wanted a clarification if the
20-percent allocation for party-list representatives in Section
5(2), Article VI of the Constitution is mandatory or merely a
ceiling, and if the three-seat limit and two-percent threshold to
qualify for one seat under RA 7941 is constitutional.
They also asked how the party-list
representative seats should be allocated. Clarification is also
sought by the group if the Constitution prohibits major political
parties from participating in the party-list elections.
Former Assemblyman Salvador Britanico, chairman
and president of BANAT, sought the clarification on the issue of
allocation of seats for party-list representative as well as the
inconsistency of allocations between the Constitution and RA 7941.
“If there is, what is the rule to follow? Can
the inconsistencies be reconciled? How?” Britanico asked.
In another petition, Bayan Muna, A Teacher and
Abono were questioning the so-called “Panganiban formula,” that
the Comelec had invoked in deciding the number of seats to be
allocated to a winning party-list group.
The Panganiban formula refers to a
decision penned by retired Chief Justice Artemio Pangiban, while
still an associate justice in 2000, on the case of Veterans
Federation Inc. et al vs. Comelec.
Under the formula, a group that gets at least 2
percent of party-list votes wins one seat but only the top
vote-getter among party-list groups gets the maximum three
Congressional seats.
The additional number of seats are computed by
dividing each group’s total votes by the number of votes received
by the “first party,” or the top vote-getter in the party-list
race.
The quotient is then multiplied by the
additional number of seats gained by the “first party” beyond
the 2-percent minimum.
Previously, party-list seats were allocated
under the “2-4-6” formula: a group that gets 2 percent of
party-list votes wins one seat; a group with 4 percent, two seats;
and a group with 6 percent or more, the maximum three seats.
The formula also imposes a three-seat cap to be
consistent with the provisions of the Party-list Law.
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