Party-list winners to lose 3 House seats

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. FILE PHOTO

Three groups that won May’s party-list election would each get one seat less for now as a result of the Supreme Court’s order to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to reserve a seat, or seats, for a senior citizens’ party in the House of Representatives.

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. on Thursday said Buhay Hayaan Yumabong (Buhay), which topped the election, would get two seats instead of three while the groups Magdalo and An Waray would each get one seat instead of two as announced by the election watchdog earlier.

The seats that the three groups are temporarily losing are being reserved for the Coalition of Associations of Senior Citizens in the Philippines Inc. (Senior Citizens), as ordered by the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Brillantes told reporters.

The Senior Citizens is challenging in the Supreme Court the Comelec’s decision to disqualify it from contesting the party-list election and has won an order from the tribunal, issued by Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, temporarily stopping the enforcement of its disqualification while the court is resolving the case.

The high court has also ordered the suspension of the proclamation of five other winning party-list groups, as the canvassing of the remaining uncounted votes could affect them and the Senior Citizens.

Order revoked

On Wednesday, a full session of the Supreme Court revoked Sereno’s order, allowing the proclamation of the five other parties but still stopping the Comelec from disqualifying the Senior Citizens and ordering it to reserve seats for the group.

Brillantes said the new seat allocations for Buhay, Magdalo and An Waray would become permanent should the Supreme Court rule with finality in favor of the Senior Citizens.

“The Senior Citizens would really depend on the decision of the Supreme Court on the merits of its case,” Brillantes said.

The Comelec, he said, will issue the certificates of proclamation that name the winning groups’ nominees who will sit in the House.

“The House of Representatives is already asking for their names because it is giving out room assignments. That is why it already needs the certification of proclamation with [the nominees’] names,” he said.

The Comelec disqualified the Senior Citizens because its nominees broke up into factions and agreed to a term-sharing deal for the two seats the party won in the 2010 election, which the party-list law does not allow.

But the Supreme Court, in stopping the Comelec disqualification order, said the Senior Citizens polled a substantial number of votes, “such that it could materially affect the determination of the allocation of seats for party-list representatives.”

Controversy in the court

That first order issued by Sereno on May 29 sparked a controversy in the Supreme Court involving the Chief Justice and a senior associate justice over whom and several other senior associate justices President Aquino passed her, a junior justice, last year, appointing her the Philippines’ first female chief magistrate.

Senior Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, who is handling the Senior Citizens case, had recommended to Sereno the issuance of a temporary restraining order to stop the Comelec from disqualifying the group.

But Sereno, acting on behalf of the full court that was in recess at the time, went a step further and also stopped the proclamation of five other winning groups.

De Castro questioned the Chief Justice’s ignoring her recommendation. Sereno replied that De Castro submitted only a synopsis of the case.

As it turned out, Sereno was not aware that her own office had received all records of the case, as well as De Castro’s recommendation for a temporary restraining order.

Sereno acknowledged the error on Wednesday and the full court revoked her May 29 order, ordering the Comelec instead to maintain the status quo involving the Senior Citizens and other groups questioning their disqualification until the case could be resolved.

It was the second time the Chief Justice had been overruled by the full court.

In December last year, the full court overruled her authorization for the establishment of a regional administrative consultative office in Cebu City without the approval of the full court. A group was formed to study the decentralization of the Supreme Court’s administrative functions.

Senatorial ranking

Meanwhile, the Comelec announced Thursday the official ranking of the winners of the 2013 senatorial race and the number of votes they received.

In a three-page resolution, the Comelec said there were still uncanvassed votes, but these would no longer affect the ranking of the winners, which showed Grace Poe as the No. 1 vote-getter, polling 20,337,327 votes.

Brillantes said there were still 30,000 to 40,000 votes that remained uncanvassed.

“So, this is the final ranking. Grace Poe is on top. No one moved in the ranking of the 12 [that] we proclaimed earlier,” Brillantes said.

“There are still uncanvassed votes but the ranking will no longer be touched. The reason is that the closest candidates are [Sen. Francis] Escudero and [Sen. Alan Peter] Cayetano, who are in the fourth and third slots,” he said.

“Cayetano’s lead over Escudero is 78,000. That will no longer be affected by the remaining 30,000 plus (uncanvassed votes),” he added.

On the official Comelec list, reelectionist Sen. Loren Legarda came in second, with 18,661,196 votes.

Cayetano garnered 17,580,813 votes, while Escudero polled 17,502,358 votes.

Nancy Binay came in fifth with 16,812,148 votes, followed by Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara (16,005,564), Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino (15,534,465), Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III (14,725,114), Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV (14,127,722); Cynthia Villar (13,822,854); and JV Ejercito (13,684,736).

Gregorio Honasan secured the 12th and last seat, garnering 13,211,424 votes to edge out Richard Gordon, who polled 12,501,991 votes.