MANILA, Philippines--The left-wing coalition Makabayan on Friday urged the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to reconsider its decision delisting Migrante Sectoral Party from party list organizations participating in the May 2010 elections, saying this would deprive millions of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) of representation in Congress.

?It is clear from its record that Migrante is a legitimate party-list organization, with the largest and broadest membership among overseas Filipinos and their families in the Philippines. It cannot be denied that to delist Migrante is to disenfranchise their constituency,? said Bayan Muna party list Representative Satur Ocampo, who is also the chairman of Makabayan, a coalition of party list organizations.

Ocampo lamented that the only party list group that stands for the concerns of the OFWs was no longer eligible to join the election.

?Thousands of overseas Filipinos are in danger of being disenfranchised by this COMELEC ruling. They who contribute so much from the economy have for so long been marginalized by the electoral system. Now, once again, they are being denied their right to representation,? he said.

In an en banc resolution dated October 13, the COMELEC barred Migrante and 25 other party list organizations from participating in the 2010 elections. Migrante, according to the poll body, participated and failed to gain seats in the two straight elections prior to the upcoming polls.

But Ocampo said that Migrante participated only in 2004 and signified their intent not to run in 2007, while maintaining the option to run in the next election.

Ocampo also questioned the inconsistencies in the COMELEC?s decision to delist. For example, he said groups like BISA, Pinoy Overseas Party and Banat were allowed to run in 2004 even as they failed to garner the required two-percent of total party-list votes to garner seats in 1998. These groups also failed to run during the 2001 elections.

According to him, groups with ?dubious representation? like the Kasangga party list of Ma. Lourdes Arroyo, the sister of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, and retired general Jovito Palparan?s Bantay party list were allowed to participate in 2007 even if these representatives do not belong to the marginalized sector, which ?defames the true spirit of the Party-List System Act.?

?All these point to a political motive in the delisting of Migrante. After all, Migrante, along with the other progressive party-list organizations, have been the most vocal in criticizing government misdeeds and even exposing electoral fraud during the past elections,? Ocampo said.