SC dismisses disqualification rap vs party-list group

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Supreme Court has dismissed the petition filed by the Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) that sought the disqualification of the LPG Marketers’ Association (LPGMA) as a party-list group.

Petitioners questioned before the high court the Comelec resolutions dated Aug. 5, 2010 and Sept. 6, 2010 accrediting LPGMA to run for the 2010 elections.

They said, LPGMA’s accreditation should be cancelled by Comelec because “it does not represent the marginalized sector of the society because its incorporators, officers and members are not marginalized or underrepresented citizens since they are actually marketers and independent refillers of LPG.”

But the high court through Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes, in a 16-page decision released to the public Wednesday said there is no point in remanding to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) the complaint for cancellation of LPGMA’s accreditation since it has already issued another resolution dated Dec. 13, 2012 that included LPGMA in the list of accredited party-list allowed to run in the May 2013 elections.

“Evidently, the Comelec has already determined and declared that the present factual circumstances of LPGMA meet the qualification imposed by law on partylist groups,” the high court said.

“It will be needless roundabout to still remand the complaint to the Comelec for it to determine anew the present state of LPGMA’s qualification. No useful purpose will be served thereby and it will just be a tedious process of hearing the factual and evidentiary matters of LPGMA’s qualification again. The Comelec in its resolution dated Dec. 13, 2012 has passed upon the issue and all other relevant questions raised in the complaint,” the high court said.