Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is set to rule this month on which of the two bickering factions of the Senior Citizens party-list group should sit in Congress, Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. said on Thursday.
Brillantes said the case had been submitted to the poll agency for resolution after the two factions submitted their legal arguments in support of their respective positions.
“We will now decide which faction should sit and that might come out in mid-September,” Brillantes said in an interview.
Commissioner Lucenito Tagle said they suggested the two factions share the two seats that the Senior Citizens party won but the factions did not agree.
“They did not want that. One said they were the legitimate faction while the other claimed the same,” Tagle said.
“We cautioned them that their Congress term might end without either of them sitting in [the House] because whoever loses can go to the Supreme Court,” he said.
“It also does not follow that if you’re the incumbent, you’re the one who is going to be in Congress,” he added.
The Comelec earlier disqualified the Senior Citizens party-list group due to “illegal term-sharing” by its nominees in the last Congress. The group, however, went to the Supreme Court and got the Comelec ruling overturned.
Despite its disqualification, the Senior Citizens group ran in last May’s elections and received 677,642 votes, which gave it two of the 58 Congress seats allocated to party-list groups.
The Comelec, however, must now decide which of the two sets of Senior Citizens party nominees should sit in the House of Representatives.
One party faction backs nominees Francisco G. Datol Jr., Amelia J. Olegario and Efren T. Santos, while the other faction’s nominees are Godofredo V. Arquiza, Milagros A. Magsaysay and David L. Kho.
Once the Senior Citizens case is settled, the Comelec can turn its attention to the appeal of party-list group Abang Linkod to occupy the last party-list seat that remains unfilled.
Brillantes said the Comelec was just waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on Abang Lingkod’s motion questioning its disqualification by the poll agency.
“If Abang Lingkod wins, it will be given the last seat. If it loses, then we will proclaim the next group in our canvassed tally,” said Brillantes.