SC junks Migrante’s party-list bid

MANILA, Philippines—The Supreme Court has dismissed with finality the petition of the overseas workers’ group Migrante to be allowed to participate in this year’s elections as a party-list group.

In an en banc decision, the high court upheld the decision of the Commission on Elections to disqualify Migrante from the party-list race after it failed to win seats in the House of Representatives in the 2004 and 2007 elections.

The court dismissed Migrante’s motion for reconsideration of its earlier decision on the issue.

Lawyer Jose Midas Marquez, the Supreme Court spokesperson, said the group failed to raise any substantive argument that would merit a reversal of the high court’s decision.

On Friday, the Comelec announced the names of 144 party-list groups accredited to join the 2010 elections.

The Comelec Tuesday added six more party-list groups to the official list, raising the total number of sectoral organizations that will participate in the May 2010 polls to 150.

Newly accredited

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez Tuesday identified the newly accredited party-list groups as the Alliance for Rural and Agrarian Reconstruction Inc. (Araro), the LPG Marketers Association Inc. (LPGMA), the Alyansa Lumad Mindanao (Allumad), Alyansa ng OFW Party (Alyansa), Ang National Coalition on Indigenous People’s Action (Ang NCIP) and Bagong Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Samahan ng Sektor ng Transportasyon (Bangon Transport).

Jimenez said the six were not included in the first promulgated list last week because their case was still in the divisions at that time.

Their inclusion, he noted, will not prejudice those groups who were already accredited or who have appealed their exclusion from the 2010 race.

The government workers’ group Courage has also asked the Supreme Court to issue a temporary restraining order on the Comelec resolution that denied its right to participate in this year’s party-list elections.

No Courage

The Comelec en banc on Jan. 12 upheld the decision of its First Division that disallowed Courage from the party-list elections when it was found to be lacking a national constituency and for its failure to submit its articles of incorporation.

“We were able to meet the minimum requirement of establishing our national constituency. While Comelec only requires at least nine regional chapters, we even submitted 13,” said Courage national president Ferdinand Gaite.

“As for the articles of incorporation, we are quite bothered why the Comelec insists that this is a required document while it accredited several party-lists who like us did not present any articles of incorporation,” he added.

The Philippine Guardians Brotherhood Inc. also asked the high court to issue a TRO on a Comelec resolution disqualifying the group from the party-list elections. –Norman Bordadora, Kristine L. Alave, Philippine Daily Inquirer