Disqualified party-list representative and actor Richard Gomez, aka Goma, has found an ally in Rep. Rodolfo Albano (Lakas, Isabela).
Albano told the Balitaan Forum at the Rembrandt Hotel in Quezon City yesterday that the Supreme Court should allow Gomez and the other winners in the party-list elections to occupy their seats and represent their organizations in Congress.
"Wala silang nagawang kasalanan (They committed no wrong). They went into the process in good faith, played by the rules and won. They should not be robbed of victory and deprived of representation in Congress which they worked hard for to win," he said.
Gomez is the first nominee of the party-list group Mamamayan Ayaw sa Droga, the organization that obtained the second highest number of votes after the left-leaning Bayan Muna. MAD was one of those disqualified by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for not representing the marginalized.
Both Bayan Muna and MAD are supposed to be entitled to three seats in the House of Representatives, having received more than 12 percent of the votes cast for party-list groups.
Last week, however, the Comelec disqualified MAD and six other winning organizations, including the ruling Lakas and the opposition Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), which claim they are qualified to participate in the party-list elections under the law.
The commission recognized only three winners: Bayan Muna, Akbayan and Butil.
The issue is now pending resolution in the Supreme Court.
Albano likened MAD, Lakas, NPC, and the four other "losers" to winners in a basketball game.
"Pinalaro sila (They were allowed to play), they played by the rules and were disqualified after they won. That does not make sense," he said.
He said the Comelec decision is more irrational and illogical especially since the poll body had, in the 11th Congress, recognized at least one political group (the Cebu-based Promdi) and the representatives of veterans’ organizations and the association of electric cooperatives.
Representatives of war veterans and electric cooperatives were among those disqualified.
"As far as I am concerned, the Comelec can no longer ban these groups and political parties because of the precedent set by the commission itself in the last Congress," Albano stressed.