SC won’t budge on party-list ruling

The likelihood of the Supreme Court reversing its ruling on a formula that raised the number of party-list representatives is far-fetched, Chief Justice Reynato Puno said yesterday.

The high court decision that upheld the provision of Republic Act 7941, otherwise known as “Party-List System Act” requiring a total of 55 seats for party-list groups in the House by revising the formula of former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban, could not be wrong, according to Puno.

Speaker Prospero Nograles filed a motion-for-intervention asking the court to clarify its decision mandating 55 representations for party-list groups in Congress.

In his appeal, Nograles asked the court to remove 20 of the party-list nominees because of supposed “erroneous computation.”

“We will just see what their grounds are in their motion for intervention,” the Chief Justice told reporters after the oath-taking ceremony for new lawyers.

Puno also said that the high bench would not respond to the reported problem of lack of space for the new party-list lawmakers who took their oath of office last Monday.

The only role of the judiciary is to interpret laws and not to provide offices for lawmakers, Puno said. “Our problem is a legal one—interpreting provisions of the constitution and other related laws. The other problems, like the lack of offices, etc., were not considered in resolving the constitutional issue there.”

In an urgent motion, Nograles said the SC might have used “an erroneous base number” that altered the figures.

In seeking clarification, the Speaker argued that the court ruling raised the membership of the House to 270, which is beyond the maximum of 250 set by the Constitution, adding that there is no national law yet passed by Congress allowing the increase in the membership of the House.

The high court used as basis for its computation 220 congressional districts as against the existing 216 and 22 party-list groups, Nograles said. This increased the membership of the House from 250 to 270.

Nograles noted that the bills increasing by 50 the existing number of districts are still pending at the committee level.

In its decision, the high tribunal revised the formula for sectoral representation in Congress, paving the way for 32 additional seats and 19 more party-list groups in the House of Representatives.

The high court unanimously voted to declare unconstitutional a provision of the party-list law that applies the 2-percent threshold in the distribution of additional party-list seats during their summer session in Baguio City last week.

The high court also revised the formula of former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban which granted the maximum number of seats of three only to the party-list group that topped the race.

Sec. 11 of R.A. 7941 provides that party-list representatives shall constitute 20 percent of the total number of the members of House of Representatives including those under the party-list.

Presently, there are 23 representatives from 17 party-list groups that were declared winners by the Commission on Elections in the 2007 mid-term polls.

The SC has given one seat each to 19 losing party-list groups in the 2007 polls: Alagad, FPJPM, Uni-Mad, ABS, Kakusa, Kabataan, Aba-ako, Alif, Senior Citizens, AT, VFP, Anad, Banat, Ang Kasangga, Bantay, Abakada, 1-Utak, TUCP and Cocofed. Banat, or Barangay Association for National Advancement and Transparency, was among the petitioners that asked the SC to revise the Panganiban formula.

In the new formula of the SC, the percentage of votes garnered by each party-list candidate is computed by dividing the number of votes garnered by each party by 15,950,900, the total number of votes cast for party-list candidates.

In determining the allocation of number of seats per winning party-list group, the percentage of votes 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 2-percenters. —Rey E. Requejo, Manila Standard Today