Despite reservations from the leadership of the House of Representatives, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) proclaimed on Friday  the additional winning party-list groups entitled to one or more seats, raising the number of sectoral members in the chamber from 22 to 51.

On Tuesday, the High Court reversed itself and ruled that all the available seats for the party-list system should be filled up in keeping with the spirit of the Constitution. The Constitution states that representatives from the under-represented and marginalized should constitute 20 percent of the House membership.

Since there are 219 legislative districts, 54 seats should be allocated to the party-list system. (The Supreme Court, however, calculated that 55 seats should be available, using 220 as base. The number of legislative districts, however, has been reduced to 219 following the high court's ruling voiding the Muslim Mindanao Autonomy Act, which created the province of Shariff Kabunsuan).

Recomputation

The proclamation of the new winning party-list groups was initially put on hold following a re-computation of the actual number of votes cast for the party-list system.

The disqualification of the party-list group Filipinos for Peace, Justice and Progress Movement (FPJPM) in July 2008 has lowered the votes cast in the party-list race from 16,024,795 to 15,723,764. Votes for FPJPM have been deducted from the total votes cast.

Based on the SC ruling, FPJPM was entitled to one seat, ranking 19th among the party-list groups. FPJPM got 301,031 votes. But the Comelec cancelled its registration on the ground that the group does not actually represent the marginalized sector. The SC has upheld the Comelec decision.

The updated computation only affected the ranking of some of the winning party-list groups. But the reduction in the number of legislative districts proved to be fatal for the party-list Cocofed (Philippine Coconut Producers Federation Inc.)

Under the SC ruling, Cocofed was entitled to one seat. But Comelec ruled that “although Cocofed was included in the decision of the SC entitled to the last 55th seat, the number of available party-list distribution, which has now been reduced to 54, could no longer accommodate Cocofed.”

In limbo

Still in limbo are two seats for the party-list group Batas (Bagong Alyansang Tagapagtaguyod ng Adhikain ng Sambayanan), and one seat for Ang Laban ng Indiginong Pilipino (Alif)

Batas, which is backed by the religious sect, Ang Dating Daan, and Alif, which is supported by the Tomawis clan of Lanao, have pending disqualification cases before the Comelec.

House leaders have reservations, from lack of funds to space concerns, on the entry of new party-list members. Around two billion pesos will be needed to accommodate the new House members, and Speaker Prospero Nograles said there is not enough office space for the new representatives.
 

 Note: There are 54 party-list seats available but online 51 could be allotted as party-list groups BATAS (entitled to 2 seats) and ALIF (entitled to 1 seat) have pending cases before the Commission. The COMELEC has resolved to deter the proclamaition of the two parties until resolution of their cases.