EN BANC
G.R. No. 207134, June 16, 2015
AKSYON MAGSASAKA-PARTIDO TINIG NG MASA (AKMA-PTM), Petitioner, v. COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS, RESPONDENT, ABANTE KATUTUBO (ABANTE KA), FROILAN M. BACUNGAN AND HERMENEGILDO DUMLAO, Petitioners-in-Intervention.
D E C I S I O N
VILLARAMA, JR., J.:
IN THE MATTER OF THEThe petition was filed with this Court on May 30, 2013. The Court did not issue a temporary restraining order. Subsequently, the Court admitted the petition-in-intervention4 filed by Abante Katutubo (ABANTE KA), Froilan M. Bacungan and Hermenegildo Dumlao who claim to have "demonstrable, legal, moral and compelling interest in the outcome of the case and the controversy."5
PROCLAMATION OF x x x x
ADDITIONAL WINNING
PARTY-LIST GROUPS,
ORGANIZATIONS AND
COALITIONS IN CONNECTION
WITH THE MAY 13, 2013
AUTOMATED NATIONAL AND
LOCAL ELECTIONS.Promulgated: May 28, 2013NBOC RESOLUTION NO. 0008-13
WHEREAS, the Commission on Elections, sitting en banc as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) for the election of Senators of the Republic of the Philippines and Party-List representatives, had, as of May 28, 2013, officially canvassed, in open and public proceedings, the votes for the Party-List System of Representation in connection with the May 13, 2013 automated national and local elections;
WHEREAS, on May 24, 2013, the NBOC issued Resolution No. 0006-13 partially proclaiming fourteen (14) party-list groups as initial winners in the party-list election of May 13, 2013 elections, without prejudice to the allocation of additional seats or the proclamation of other parties, organizations, or coalitions which may later on be established to be entitled to one guaranteed seat and/or additional seat;
WHEREAS, the Commission on Elections, in its Resolution of May 24, 2013 in SPP Cases Numbered 12-157 (PLM); 12-191 (PLM); 12-185 (PLM); 12-238 (PLM); 12-228 (PLM); and 12-202 (PLM), and also in its Resolution of May 27, 2013 in SPP Cases Numbered 12-161 (PLM); 12-263 (PLM); 12-292 (PLM); 12-256 (PLM); 12-229 (PLM); .and 12-272 (PLM) considered the cancellation of registration of the following party-list groups as final and executory:
NAME OF PARTY-LIST ACRONYM VOTES GARNERED1 Coalition of Associations of Senior Citizens in the Philippines, Inc. SENIOR CITIZENS 677,6422 Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy ANAD 200,9723 Abang Lingkod Party-List ABANG-LINGKOD 260,2154 Binhi Partido ng mga Magsasaka Para Sa Mga Magsasaka BINHI 185,5375 Cocofed-Philippine Coconut Producers Federation, Inc. COCOFED 103,3936 Atong Paglaum, Inc. ATONG PAGLAUM 95,4677 Kaagapay ng Nagkakaisang Agilang Pilipinong Magsasaka KAP 57,1048 Aagapay ng Indigenous People Rights Alliance, Inc. A-IPRA 28,2409 Ang Galing Pinoy AG 4,25210 The True Marcos Loyalist (For God, Country & People) Association of the Philippines, Inc. BANTAY 113,79811 Social Movement for Active Reform and Transparency SMART 83,033 TOTAL 1,809,653
WHEREAS, the total votes cast for the abovementioned party-list are considered "stray" and as such will not be included in the total votes cast for party-list;
WHEREAS, on the basis of Party-List Canvass Report No. 10, there is a total of 26,722,131 votes cast for party-list;
WHEREAS, there are fifty-eight (58) available seats for party-list;
WHEREAS, in view of the remaining uncanvassed results and special elections in some areas, not all of the fifty-eight (58) available party-list can be allocated in order not to prejudice the proclamation of other parties, organizations, or coalitions which may later on be established to be entitled to a seat or additional seats;
NOW, THEREFORE, by virtue of the powers vested in it under the Constitution, the Omnibus Election Code (Batas Pambansa Blg. 881), Republic Acts Numbered 9369, 8436,7941,7166,6646, and other election laws, the Commission on Elections sitting en banc as the National Board of Canvassers for Party-List, RESOLVED, as it hereby RESOLVES, to PROCLAIM the following party-list groups as initial winners in the party list elections of May 13, 2013, involving a total of fifty-three (53) guaranteed and/or additional seats, without prejudice to the proclamation of other parties, organizations or coalitions which may later on be established to be entitled to one guaranteed seat and/or additional seat:chanroblesvirtuallawlibrarySO ORDERED.
PARTY-LIST GROUP GRAND TOTAL
28-May 1:52AM
PERCENTAGE (%) OF VOTES GARNERED
Guaranteed
Seat
Additional Seat (2nd round) Total SeatsBUHAY 1,265,992 4.74 1 2 3A TEACHER 1,040,898 3.90 1 1 2BAYAN MUNA 952,767 3.57 1 1 2I-CARE 933,831 3.49 1 1 2AKBAYAN 827,405 3.10 1 1 2ABONO 767,645 2.87 1 1 2AKB 763,103 2.86 1 1 2OFW FAMILY 750,753 2.81 1 1 2GABRIELA 713,492 2.67 1 1 2COOP-NATCCO 641,355 2.40 1 1 2AGAP 592,069 2.22 1 1 2CIBAC 583,768 2.18 1 1 2MAGDALO 565,883 2.12 1 1 2AN WARAY 540,906 2.02 1 1 2ABAMIN 465,989 1.74 1 1ACT TEACHERS 453,491 1.70 1 1BUTIL 438,601 1.64 1 1AMIN 376,932 1.41 1 1ACT-CIS 376,175 1.41 1 1KALINGA 371,610 1.39 1 1LPGMA 370,360 1.39 1 1TUCP 368,883 1.38 1 1YACAP 366,340 1.37 1 1AGRI 365,516 1.37 1 1ANGKLA 360,138 1.35 1 1ABS 358,693 1.34 1 1DIWA 341,443 1.28 1 1KABATAAN 340,573 1.27 1 1ANAK PAWIS 321,110 1.20 1 1ALAY BUHAY 316,947 1.19 1 1AAMBIS-OWA 311,725 1.17 1 11-SAGIP 287,060 1.07 1 1AVE 270,159 1.01 1 1ATING KOOP 267,452 1.00 1 11-BAP 245,237 0.92 1 1ABAKADA 243,994 0.91 1 1AMA 243,551 0.91 1 1ANG NARS 242,835 0.91 1 1
(SGD.)
SIXTO S. BRILLANTES, JR. Chairman (SGD.)
LUCENITO N. TAGLE (SGD.)
ELIAS R. YUSOPH Member Member (SGD.)
CHRISTIAN ROBERT S. LIM (SGD.)
MARIA GRACIA CIELO M. PADACA Member Member (On Official Business)
AL A. PARRENO (SGD.)
LUIE TITO F. GUIA Member Member
SEC. 233. When the election returns are delayed, lost or destroyed. - x x x The board of canvassers, notwithstanding the fact that not all the election returns have been received by it, may terminate the canvass and proclaim the candidates elected on the basis of the available election returns if the missing election returns will not affect the results of the election.In Barbers v. COMELEC17 we dismissed a petition to annul the NBOC resolutions affirming the proclamation of COMELEC declaring Rodolfo G. Biazon (Biazon) as the duly elected 12th Senator in the May 10, 2004 national and local elections. On petitioner's argument that the proclamation was premature and void, we ruled that COMELEC did not commit grave abuse of discretion since the uncanvassed returns and the results of the special elections to be held would not materially affect the results of the elections.
SEC. 12. Procedure in Allocating Seats for Party-List Representatives. - The COMELEC shall tally all the votes for the parties, organizations, or coalitions on a nationwide basis, rank them according to the number of votes received and allocate party-list representatives proportionately according to the percentage of votes obtained by each party, organization, or coalition as against the total nationwide votes cast for the party-list system.In BANAT v. COMELEC,22 we laid down the following procedure in determining the allocation of seats for party-list representatives under Section 11 of R.A. No. 7941:chanroblesvirtuallawlibrary
As to the allocation of additional seats on the second round, after deducting the guaranteed one seat each, for those who obtained 2% of the total votes cast for party-list, from the number of available party-list seats, we further held in BANAT that -
- The parties, organizations, and coalitions shall be ranked from the highest to the lowest based on the number of votes they garnered during the elections.
- The parties, organizations, and coalitions receiving at least two percent (2%) of the total votes cast for the party-list system shall be entitled to one guaranteed seat each.
- Those garnering sufficient number of votes, according to the ranking in paragraph 1, shall be entitled to additional seats in proportion to their total number of votes until all the additional seats are allocated.
- Each party, organization, or coalition shall be entitled to not more than three (3) seats.
In computing the additional seats, the guaranteed seats shall no longer be included because they have already been allocated, at one seat each, to every two-percenter. Thus, the remaining available seats for allocation as "additional seats" are the maximum seats reserved under the Party List System less the guaranteed seats. Fractional seats are disregarded in the absence of a provision in R.A. No. 7941 allowing for a rounding off of fractional seats.It is clear from the foregoing that party-list groups garnering less than 2% of the party-list votes may yet qualify for a seat in the allocation of additional seats depending on their ranking in the second round. As shown in Table 3, it was noted that the product of the percentage and the remaining available seats of all parties ranked 9 and below is less than one. This conflicts with the interpretation of petitioner that those party-list groups with product of the percentage less than one, and hence not an integer, are not entitled to one seat in the allocation of additional seats. Indeed, following petitioner's interpretation would result in the remaining party-list seats not being filled up. For that same reason, BANAT declared unconstitutional the continued operation of the two-percent threshold, as it was deemed "an unwarranted obstacle to the full implementation of Section 5(2), Article VI of the Constitution and prevents the attainment of the 'broadest possible representation of party, sectoral or group interests in the House of Representatives.'"24 Apparently, petitioner mistakenly assumed that the statement in BANAT disallowing fractional seats insofar as the additional seats for the two-percenters in the second round should also apply to those party-list groups with less than 2% votes. But as demonstrated in BANAT, the 20% share in representation may never be filled up if the 2% threshold is maintained. In the same vein, the maximum representation will not be achieved if those party-list groups obtaining less than one percentage are disqualified from even one additional seat in the second round.
In declaring the two percent threshold unconstitutional, we do not limit our allocation of additional seats in Table 3 below to the two-percenters. The percentage of votes garnered by each party-list candidate is arrived at by dividing the number of votes garnered by each party by 15,950,900, the total number of votes cast for party-list candidates. There are two steps in the second round of seat allocation. First, the percentage is multiplied by the remaining available seats, 38, which is the difference between the 55 maximum seats reserved under the Party-List System and the 17 guaranteed seats of the two-percenters. The whole integer of the product of the percentage and of the remaining available seats corresponds to a party's share in the remaining available seats. Second, we assign one party-list seat to each of the parties next in rank until all available seats are completely distributed. We distributed all of the remaining 38 seats in the second round of seat allocation. Finally, we apply the three-seat cap to determine the number of seats each qualified party-list candidate is entitled. Thus:
Table 3. Distribution of Available Party-List Seats
Rank Party Votes Garnered
Votes Garnered over Total Votes for Party List, in %
(A)
Guaranteed Seat
(First Round)
(B)
Additional Seats
(Second Round)
(C)
(B) plus (C), in whole integers
(D)
Applying the three seat cap
(E)
1BUHAY 1,169,234 7.33 1 2.79 3 N.A. 2BAYAN MUNA 979,039 6.14 1 2.33 3 N.A. 3CIBAC 755,686 4.74 1 1.80 2 N.A. 4GABRIELA 621,171 3.89 1 1.48 2 N.A. 5APEC 619,657 3.88 1 1.48 2 N.A. 6A Teacher 490,379 3.07 1 1.17 2 N.A. 7AKBAYAN 466,112 2.92 1 1.11 2 N.A. 8ALAGAD 423,149 2.65 1 1.01 2 N.A. 9*COOP-NATCCO 409,883 2.57 1 1 2 N.A. 10BUTIL 409,160 2.57 1 1 2 N.A. 11BATAS 385,810 2.42 1 1 2 N.A. 12ARC 374,288 2.35 1 1 2 N.A. 13ANAKPAWIS 370,261 2.32 1 1 2 N.A. 14ABONO 339,990 2.13 1 1 2 N.A. 15AMIN 338,185 2.12 1 1 2 N.A. 16AGAP 328,724 2.06 1 1 2 N.A. 17AN WARAY 321,503 2.02 1 1 2 N.A. 18YACAP 310,889 1.95 0 1 1 N.A. 19FPJPM 300,923 1.89 0 1 1 N.A. 20UNI-MAD 245,382 1.54 0 1 1 N.A. 21ABS 235,086 1.47 0 1 1 N.A. 22KAKUSA 228,999 1.44 0 1 1 N.A. 23KABATAAN 228,637 1.43 0 1 1 N.A. 24ABA-AKO 218,818 1.37 0 1 1 N.A. 25ALIF 217,822 1.37 0 1 1 N.A. 26SENIOR CITIZENS 213,058 1.34 0 1 1 N.A. 27AT 197,872 1.24 0 1 1 N.A. 28VFP 196,266 1.23 0 1 1 N.A. 29ANAD 188,521 1.18 0 1 1 N.A. 30BANAT 177,028 1.11 0 1 1 N.A. 31ANG KASANGGA 170,531 1.07 0 1 1 N.A. 32BANTAY 169,801 1.06 0 1 1 N.A. 33ABAKADA 166,747 1.05 0 1 1 N.A. 341-UTAK 164,980 1.03% 0 1 1 N.A. 35TUCP 162,647 1.02% 0 1 1 N.A. 36COCOFED 155,920 0.98% 0 1 1 N.A. Total 17 55
* The product of the percentage and the remaining available seats of all parties ranked nine and below is less than one.
Applying the procedure of seat allocation as illustrated in Table 3 above, there are 55 party-list representatives from the 36 winning party-list organizations. All 55 available party-list seats are filled. The additional seats allocated to the parties with sufficient number of votes for one whole seat, in no case to exceed a total of three seats for each party, are shown in column (D).23 (Emphasis and underscoring supplied)
Endnotes:
1Rollo, pp. 3-10.
2 AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE ELECTION OF PARTY-LIST REPRESENTATIVES THROUGH THE PARTY-LIST SYSTEM, AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR, approved on March 3, 1995.
3Rollo, pp. 12-14.
4 Id. at 59-70.
5 Id. at 59.
6 Id. at 15-19.
7 Id. at 126-127.
8 Id. at 155.
9 604 Phil. 131 (2009).
10 426 Phil. 225, 241 (2002).
11Rollo, p. 62.
12 Id. at 72-77.
13 Id. at 108-117.
14 G.R. Nos. 206844-45 & 206982, Resolution dated June 5, 2013.
15Rollo, pp. 128-137.
16Caruncho III v. Commission on Elections, 374 Phil. 308, 324 (1999), citing Samad v. Commission on Elections, G.R. Nos. 107854 & 108642, July 16, 1993, 224 SCRA 631, 642-643; Tiglao v. Commission on Elections, No. L-31566, February 18, 1970, 31 SCRA 719, 729; Mutuc v. Commission on Elections, 130 Phil. 663, 669 (1968); Demafiles v. Commission on Elections, 129 Phil. 792, 799 (1967); Duremdes v. Commission on Elections, 258-A Phil. 532, 546 (1989) further citing Sinsuat v. Pendatun, 144 Phil. 729 (1970).
17 499 Phil. 570 (2005).
18Aklan Electric Cooperative Inc. v. National Labor Relations Commission, 380 Phil. 225, 245 (2000).
19Luxuria Homes, Inc. v. Court of Appeals, 361 Phil. 989, 1000 (1999).
20 See Caruncho III v. Commission on Elections, supra note 16, at 322-323.
21Barbers v. COMELEC, supra note 17, at 588.
22 Supra note 9, at 162.
23 Id. at 162-165.
24 Id. at 162.