Petition to suspend declaration of party-list winners filed before SC

MANILA, Philippines — A party-list group on Monday filed a petition before the Supreme Court (SC) seeking to suspend the declaration of party-list winners in the 2025 midterm elections.

In a 28-page petition for certiorari, the One Filipinos Worldwide (OFW) party-list asked the SC to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) and/or a status quo ante order with writ of preliminary injunction to “cease and desist” the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from implementing National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) resolution 14-25.

READ: Comelec ready to face case filed by party list group

The party-list argued that the formula used by the Comelec in declaring winners in the May 12 elections through NBOC 14-25—the ruling of Banat v. Comelec—was “inconsistent with the intent of the 1987 Constitution.”

“The Banat formula should be modified, if not abandoned, as it is inconsistent with, and fails to reflect, the spirit and intent of the 1987 Constitution and Republic Act No. 7941,” the petition read.

Under the Banat formula, 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—but not more than 3 seats.

“It is politely advanced that the formula introduced in Banat resulted into double counting of votes in favor of party-list groups who attained two percent (2 percent) of the total votes cast by all party-list groups,” the petition read.

The party-list argued that under the Banat formula, a party should only get one seat for every 2 percent of total votes, up to a maximum of three seats, so 2 percent earns 1 seat, 4 percent earns 2 seats, and 6 percent earns 3.

The main issue, however, as pointed out by OFW party-list is that in order to meet the 20 percent party-list representation requirement in Congress, the parties which garnered 2 percent or 4 percent votes got “an additional seat” which meant that a 2 percent vote does not only get one seat but two seats, while a 4 percent vote, on the other hand, got three seats.

“Nowhere from the text of the law was it stated that the 2 percent shall be used for the purpose of determining the number of guaranteed seats. The 2 percent threshold already provides an equivalent seat that must be definitively allocated,” the partylist pointed out in the petition.

Due to this, OFW party-list insisted that it should also get one seat in the House of Representatives as only the Akbayan party-list should get three seats, while the Duterte Youth Tingog party-lists should get two seats instead of three, while the 4Ps, ACT-CIS, and Ako Bikol party-lists should get one seat each.

The Comelec, for its part, welcomed the petition, stating that the SC’s Banat vs Comelec already “provided the basis” for the computation of allocation of party-list seats.

“[It] also operationalized the Constitutional precepts on the composition of the House of Representatives,” Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco said.

“Comelec welcomes any development on enriching jurisprudence on the Party-List System of Representation in the absence of any amendments to RA7941 on these issues as of date,” he added. /cb