Comelec headquarters in Intramuros, Manila.
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) sitting en banc on Monday affirmed the cancellation of the registration of the An Waray partylist.
The Comelec’s latest decision previously revoked the party’s registration for allowing then-second nominee Victoria Isabel Noel to assume a seat in the House of Representatives without proper authority back in 2016.
An Waray then appealed the decision “for insufficiency of evidence to justify the decision and for being contrary to law,” arguing that the candidate in a party-list system is the organization itself and so what is being proclaimed is the party and not its nominee.
However, the Comelec resolution made resolved to dismiss the motion for reconsideration filed by An Waray because it failed to present any “exceptional circumstance or compelling reason” to warrant the reversal or modification of the initial resolution.
The resolution reiterated that the partylist deciding to have Noel sit in the House in the 16th Congress without a certificate of proclamation violated elections laws, rules, or regulations.
“The act of taking her oath and her assumption of office with no Certificate of Proclamation [.] clearly constitutes a violation of the rules relating to Party-list representatives,” the resolution read.
“[This] clearly falls under the grounds for the removal or cancellation of registrations of party-list under Section 6(5) of R.A. No. 7941.”