Comelec asked to stop proclamation of Ang Probinsyano party-list

MANILA, Philippines — The Alyansa ng mga Mamamayang Probinsyano (Ang Probinsyano) that is included among the top 10 in the latest count of the party-list polls should be barred from being proclaimed winner, a petitioner urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Radio commentator Angelo Palmones, former representative of Agham (Alyansa ng mga Gurong Haligi ng Agham at Teknolohiya para sa Mamamayan) party-list, filed a petition before the Comelec seeking to suspend the proclamation of Ang Probinsyano on grounds that it is using the television network ABS-CBN hit TV program “Ang Probinsyano” in violation of election laws.

In his April 11 petition filed against Ang Probinsyano party-list and ABS-CBN, Palmones argued that the group was “obviously utilizing ABS-CBN’s ‘Ang Probinsyano’ television series as an indirect form of election campaign, which violates election laws.”

He alleged that by using the action-drama series as its name, the party-list group had as well appeared for 1,330 minutes from Feb. 12 –start of the campaign season for candidates of national elective posts – until April 5, days before he filed the petition.

The poll body should first decide Palmones’ previous petition canceling the registration of Ang Probinsyano as a party-list group filed last April 11 before proceeding with the proclamation of the winning group, he said in his complaint.

According to the Comelec’s transparency server, Ang Probinsyano – registered as #54 on the official ballot – has garnered 2.78 percent of the total votes as of 4 p.m. yesterday.

The Comelec would proclaim as winners the groups that garnered at least two percent of the total votes cast for party-list, entitling their nominees to a seat in the House of Representatives.

“Therefore, (Ang Probinsyano), as of April 5, already has a 1,210-minute advantage over other (groups), whose names do not appear on television screens every night,” he maintained, deeming it “unfair and illegal for the other partylist (groups).”

The party-list group even got the television series’ main actors Coco Martin and Yassi Pressman as endorsers, he added.

Palmones said both Ang Probinsyano party-list and ABS-CBN violated Section 9 of Comelec Resolution 10488, limiting campaign advertisements of candidates of national positions to 120 minutes for television, and Section 98 of the Omnibus Election Code which states that contributors of campaign advertisements must be publicized. with Mayen Jaymalin, Rhodina Villanueva, Evelyn Macairan, Romina Cabrera, Sheila Crisostomo