Bayan Muna leaders Rep. Satur C. Ocampo and General Counsel Neri Javier Colmenares on Monday filed a petition for certiorari at the Supreme Court seeking to prohibit and stop the Commission on Elections from implementing the First Party Rule in the allocation of seats for winning partylist organizations in the House of Representatives.
In its 70-page petition, Bayan Muna asked the tribunal to set aside Comelec Resolution No. 07-60 and to prohibit the Comelec from implementing the First Party Rule. Likewise, it also asked the SC to to declare as unconstitutional the three-seat cap.
The Comelec, through Resolution No. 07-60, has decided to implement the First Party Rule in allocating partylist seats. Bayan Muna has always opposed the First Party Rule even when it topped the partylist elections in 2001 and 2004.
According to Bayan Muna, the First Party Rule violates at least two provisions of the Constitution: A free and open party system shall be allowed to evolve according to the choice of the people (Section 6 Article IX) and that (T)he Philippines is a democratic and republican state. Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them (Section 1 Article II).
Bayan Muna also contends that the Comelec’s 2-4-6 Formula also defeats the noble objective of the Constitution. “Its application has led to the woefully inadequate allocation of only 14 seats in 1998, 21 in 2001, and 24 in 2004 for the party-list system. In each instance, the allocation has always been less than half of the 20% provided under the Constitution.”
“In the 2007 elections, fewer than 20 seats will be occupied by party list groups because of the “first party rule” further marginalizing the marginalized,” Bayan Muna added.
If the court strikes down both the First Party Rule and the three-seat cap, Bayan Muna proposes an alternative formula that will fill up the 55 House seats for partylist representatives. If the three-seat cap is maintained, the formula will result in the allocation of at least 42 seats among all partylist groups that obtained at least two percent of total partylist votes cast in the 2007 elections.