Another party-list group seeks SC relief

MANILA, Philippines - Another party-list group disqualified by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is set to seek relief from the Supreme Court (SC).

Members of the 1-CARE or 1st Consumer’s Alliance for Rural Energy Inc. will follow the Ako Bicol party-list group and ask the SC to reverse the decision of the Comelec disqualifying their group from next year’s midterm polls.

Lawyer Carlos Roman Uybarreta, secretary-general of 1-CARE, said the Comelec’s ruling destroyed the party-list system and “mocks the judicial system.”

He said the poll body disregarded a ruling of the Supreme Court dated Nov. 23, 2010, which established the qualification of their group as a party-list group under Republic Act

7941 or Party-list System Act.

“This is a mockery of our judicial system, a total disregard of basic and fundamental principles of law and jurisprudence, like stare decisis et non quieta movere and immutability of judgments,” Uybarreta said yesterday.

He believes that the Comelec violated the jurisprudence cited by the high court in their case (Lambino vs. Comelec) in its decision to disqualify them in the party-list elections.

“It has long been established that for judicial stability and certainty in the law and for justice and fairness to prevail courts should stand by the decisions and disturb not what is settled. And as repeatedly used in our jurisprudence, it means that once the court has laid down a principle of law as applicable to a certain state of facts, it would adhere to that principle and apply it to all future cases in which the facts are substantially the same,” he argued.

He said 1-CARE – which aims to promote consumer empowerment by protecting the rights of rural energy consumers to avail of reliable and reasonably priced electricity – was granted with sectoral party status under the party-list system of representation by the First Division of the Comelec on Jan. 10, 2010.

The poll body categorically stated then that the group represents the marginalized sector of rural electric consumers and are compliant with the guidelines and requirements for party-list representation laid down in the landmark case of Ang Bagong Bayani-OFW Labor Party vs. Comelec.

Barangay Natin (BANAT) party-list group questioned 1-CARE’s registration and accreditation, but the Comelec full bench upheld the ruling of the poll body’s First Division. BANAT later filed an appeal with the SC.

1-CARE was able to participate in the party-list polls in May 2010 and won two seats in Congress now being occupied by Reps. Michael Angelo

Rivera and Salvador Cabaluna III.

The SC upheld Comelec’s findings and dismissed BANAT’s petition in November 2010.

The SC made its ruling final on Feb. 22, 2011, after junking petitioner’s second motion for reconsideration and ordered entry of judgment on the case.

The Comelec canceled the registration of 1-CARE as a sectoral organization last Oct. 16, saying that rural energy consumers are not included among the sectors mentioned in Article VI Section 5 (2) of the Constitution and Section 5 of RA 7941.

Uybarreta said the Comelec made an error when it overturned the judgment of the SC on their party-list’s qualification under the law.

“The long established doctrine of immutability of judgments was totally disregarded in the case at hand. It is incumbent upon the Court to assist in the enforcement of the law and in the maintenance of peace and order in our government and society at large to put anend to judiciable controversies with finality,” he alleged.

The 1-CARE official vowed to fight their disqualification for the sake of the 770,015 voters who supported it in the 2010 polls.