Cancel registration of seniors’ party-list, Comelec urged

An elderly voter is asking the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to cancel the registration of a senior citizens’ party-list group which won in the May 2016 polls but has yet to take its seats in Congress.

Cecille Lopez, 62, urged the poll body to act on the failure of the Coalition of Associations of Senior Citizens in the Philippines (Senior Citizens) to represent them due to infighting.

Lopez submitted a letter to the office of Chair Andres Bautista on Tuesday, complaining that a million elderly Filipinos were robbed of the opportunity to advance their sectors’ concerns.

She voted for the Senior Citizens party-list in the belief that the concerns of senior citizens like herself would be protected.

“But since the last elections, the Senior Citizens party-list has not been able to do that. It would appear that they have been fighting, not to advance the interests of senior citizens but to protect their own selfish interests,” she said.

The Senior Citizens party-list is one of three party-list groups which have not yet been issued its certificates of proclamation (COPs) by the Comelec because of the issue of multiple nominees.

The other two party-list groups are the 1st Consumers Alliance for Rural Energy (1-CARE) and the Trade Union Congress Party (TUCP).

The Senior Citizens group is entitled to two seats after garnering 988,876 votes, while 1-CARE and TUCP are both allocated one seat after getting 329,627 and 467,275 votes.

Party-list representatives are required to have their COPs before they can take their seat in Congress.

Forty-six party-list organizations were able to win seats in the May national and local elections, of which 55 out of 59 nominees were already proclaimed.

Lopez said two factions within the Senior Citizens partylist filed two sets of nominees, which the Comelec had not yet resolved.

She added that since the poll body voids the registration of party-lists which lost in two consecutive elections, this should be also done to winning party-lists which failed to take their seats in Congress.

In 2013, the party-list group also won in the said elections but also failed to have their nominees take their seats in Congress because of infighting.

Lopez urged Bautista to act on the matter and allow more legitimate, deserving party-list groups represent the elderly, instead of letting the two seats go to waste./rga