Akbayan partylist supporters. INQUIRER.net file photo/Christa Marie Ramos
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) was urged on Tuesday to proclaim Akbayan Party as a winner of the 2022 national and local elections after the Supreme Court (SC) ruled to cancel the partylist registration of An Waray.
According to Akbayan Party President Rafaela David, the “next logical and legal step” after the SC ruling was to be given its “rightful” seat in the House of Representatives.
“With the High Court’s ruling, a partylist seat is now vacated and rightfully belongs to Akbayan, which currently ranked 57th— just one place shy of the list of 56 winning groups in the 2022 election. The next logical and legal step is for the Comelec to proclaim Akbayan as the rightful holder of the last available seat,” said David in a statement.
READ: Comelec affirms cancellation of An-waray partylist registration
In 2013, the National Board of Canvassers canceled the registration of some partylist groups that led to the adjustment of An Waray’s seats from originally one into two.
READ: Chel Diokno now officially a member of Akbayan Party
In the same year, the High Court reversed the decision of Comelec to cancel the registration of Abang Lingkod Partylist, thus proclaiming it as one of the winners in the 2013 elections. This resulted in an adjustment in the final allocation of seat distribution, which led to An Waray being entitled to one seat only.
The High Court upheld the decision of the Comelec to cancel the registration of An Waray as a partylist organization in 2019. This was after Danilo Pornias and Jude Acidre filed a petition to cancel the registration of An Waray allegedly claiming that An Waray second nominee Victoria Isabel Noel took an oath in the office in the 16th Congress despite being entitled to only one seat.
“Every day Akbayan remains unseated undermines our electoral democracy and denies marginalized sectors the representation they urgently need,” David added.
Further, when asked about their comment on Akbayan’s call for Comelec to declare them as a winner in the 2022 elections, Comelec chairman George Garcia said in a Viber message to the media that “[i]t will come any moment from now. However, we have yet to receive a copy of the SC Decision. We will surely act fast.”
Akbayan fell short by 2,000 votes to secure a seat in the Congress in the 2022 elections, ranking 57th from all the partylist groups. It was the party’s second year of absence in the Congress after it failed to secure a seat for the first time in the 2019 midterm elections.