SC: Party lists need not be marginalized

MANILA, Philippines -  The party-list system is not limited to marginalized groups, and the system must be opened even to regional and national political organizations regardless of size, the Supreme Court (SC) has ruled.

In revising the standards for groups participating in the party-list system, the SC granted relief to 52 groups earlier disqualified by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from the midterm polls on May 13.

The ruling said the Comelec was correct in disqualifying the 52 groups based on the old parameters. But the SC also remanded all the cases to the poll body for reconsideration of the groups’ qualifications, based on the new standards.

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes expressed disappointment over the ruling and said almost all the disqualified groups will likely be allowed to participate in the party-list race. But he said the poll body is prepared to hold daily hearings if necessary in order to abide by the ruling in time for the elections.

Under the six new parameters laid down in the decision released yesterday, the high court removed the previous Comelec requirement for groups joining the party-list election to belong to a marginalized or underrepresented sector. The Comelec stand was based on the SC’s own ruling in a June 2001 case involving the party-list group Ang Bagong Bayani. 

“To require all national and regional parties under the party-list system to represent the ‘marginalized and underrepresented’ is to deprive and exclude, by judicial fiat, ideology-based and cause-oriented parties from the party-list system,” read the ruling penned by Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio.

He was joined by 10 other justices in this opinion, to which Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno and Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes dissented.

“(This) would allow the more entrenched and well-established political parties to compete with the weaker segments of society, which is the very evil sought to be guarded against,” Sereno said in her opinion.

In the new ruling, which set aside standards laid down in the Ang Bagong Bayani case, the high court allowed political parties, including the major ones, to participate in the party-list race “provided they register under the party-list system and do not field candidates in legislative district elections.”

As for sectoral parties, the SC held that a majority of their members as well as their nominees must belong to the respective sectors they represent, which should be “marginalized and underrepresented.”

The court also allowed participating groups to proceed with their election bid even if some of their nominees are disqualified provided that they have at least five other qualified reserved nominees.

Voting 7-6, the SC ruled that contrary to the allegation of the petitioners, the Comelec was correct and did not abuse its discretion in disqualifying the 52 groups based on the previous standards. 

But the justices voted 10-2-1 to remand the cases to the poll body, which was directed to conduct “summary hearings” to determine the respective qualifications of the 52 groups based on the new standards.

Sereno again dissented in this decision, questioning why the majority would set new standards and remand the cases when they in fact upheld the Comelec’s assailed decisions.

“From such examination, we can conclude that, in relation to the other grounds used by Comelec to cancel registration (other than those two grounds mentioned above), the doctrines remain unchanged. Thus, a remand of those petitions is unnecessary, considering that the acts of the Comelec pertaining to their petitions are upheld,” Sereno argued.

The majority of justices, however, prevailed and granted the 54 petitions of the 52 groups disqualified by the Comelec last year for not belonging to “marginalized and underrepresented” sectors. Four of the petitions involved two groups with factions fighting over their slots.

Con-com records reviewed

 The SC justices, in deliberations during their summer session in Baguio City last Tuesday, looked at the records of the constitutional commission. A majority of them agreed that framers of the 1987 Charter did not intend to limit the party-list system to sectoral representation. 

As proof, the justices cited the 19-22 voting of members of the commission against a proposal to limit the party-list system exclusively to sectoral parties or reserve permanent seats to them in the House of Representatives. 

The high tribunal stressed that even Republic Act 7941 or the Party-list System Act does not require national and regional groups to represent the “marginalized and underrepresented sectors” such as labor, peasants, fisherfolk, the urban poor, indigenous cultural communities, handicapped, veterans and overseas workers before they can join the party-list system.

All the 52 groups were covered by a status quo ante order issued by the SC on Nov. 13 last year, stopping their disqualification by the Comelec. But the SC clarified that only 39 of the groups, which were able to secure a mandatory injunction and join the list in the ballot, will be assessed by the Comelec for participation in the elections. 

The SC said the poll body could conduct summary evidentiary hearings to determine the qualifications of the 39 groups based on the new criteria. 

The cases of the 13 others without a mandatory injunction were also remanded to the poll body, which was tasked to determine whether the groups are qualified to register although they will not participate in the party-list elections. 

SC spokesman Theodore Te clarified that the ruling and new standards apply only to the 52 groups, and not to the rest of the 136 groups in the ballot printed by Comelec.  

SC voted 8 times

 Only 13 SC justices participated in the voting. Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr. inhibited due to a relative’s participation in the party-list polls while Associate Justice Estela Perlas–Bernabe was on leave. 

The magistrates voted eight times: once for each of the six parameters, once on the issues of grave abuse of discretion by the Comelec, and again on remanding the case to the poll body. 

Apart from Sereno, Associate Justices Reyes, Arturo Brion and Marvic Leonen each submitted concurring and dissenting opinions.  

Reyes believed only cases of groups whose remaining ground for denial or cancellation of registration involves the new guidelines on the qualifications of a party’s nominees – and not all cases – should be remanded by the SC to the Comelec. 

Brion, for his part, pushed for an 11-point set of parameters, which retain the Ang Bagong Bayani standards. Leonen believed the 39 groups should automatically be allowed to join the polls next month, with no need for a Comelec review.   

After being disqualified by the Comelec, 41 previously registered party-list groups and 13 new applicants managed to secure a status quo ante order from the SC. The Comelec then included the 41 groups with cancelled registrations in the ballots, along with the 82 groups already accredited.

Fr. Joe Dizon of Kontradaya said the SC ruling would open the floodgates to non-marginalized groups posing as regional parties.

 â€œNon-marginalized nominees can also participate provided they have a so-called track record of advocacy – something that is easy to fabricate,” Dizon lamented.

He said the SC ruling makes it difficult for legitimate groups to win since they will be competing with wealthy and powerful groups. – with Mayen Jaymalin