Buhay protests fewer House party-list seats

MANILA, Philippines—The lawyer of party-list group Buhay Hayaan Yumabong (Buhay) on Friday protested the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) decision to allot only two congressional seats to it, after the Supreme Court directed the electoral body to “reserve seats” for the party-list group Senior Citizens.

Lawyer Romulo Macalintal said the Comelec cannot rescind without due process its May 28 pronouncement giving Buhay, which topped the 2013 party list elections, three congressional seats.

Comelec chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. on Thursday said one seat would be subtracted temporarily from the seat allocations for party-list groups Buhay, Magdalo, and An Waray.

Brillantes said the move was prompted by a Supreme Court status quo ante order (SQA) directing the Comelec to “reserve seats” for the party-list group Senior Citizens, which is questioning its disqualification before the high court.

The Comelec had earlier disqualified the group for term-sharing, a violation of the party list rules.

Brillantes earlier said that Senior Citizens, which obtained at least 677,642 votes, would have landed on the 10th spot in the party-list rankings and would have been entitled to two congressional seats, had it not been disqualified.

But Macalintal said the SQA should not affect Buhay and that the “reserved seats” for the Senior Citizens’ group should be taken from the five party-list seats that have yet to be allotted by the Comelec.

In a statement, Macalintal said that the “Comelec cannot withhold the issuance of the certificate of proclamation for Buhay’s three seats since it has the effect of suspending the effects of (its) previous proclamation without due notice and hearing.”

“On May 28, the Comelec proclaimed Buhay with a total of three seats… Such proclamation, like the proclamation of a regular winning candidate, cannot be annulled or set aside nor the effects of such proclamation be suspended, without due notice and hearing,” Macalintal said.

He also noted that the Supreme Court held that a status quo order “cannot affect persons who are not parties to a case.” Buhay is not a party to the petitions filed by the Senior Citizens before the high tribunal, Macalintal said. With a report by Jerome Aning