SC urged to postpone party-list elections

MANILA - A party-list group has asked the Supreme Court to postpone to October the party-list elections.

In an urgent motion, 1 Ang Bagong Alyansang Tagapagtaguyod ng Adhikaing Sambayanan (1 Ang Batas) said it is “necessary to rationalize the party-list system” because of the new standards set by the high court in a ruling last week.

The group, disqualified earlier by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), asked for “the guidelines that the Honorable Court laid down be applied to all existing party-list groups, including those which the (Comelec) accredited and allowed to participate in the May 2013 elections.”

It was one of many groups that earlier questioned several Comelec resolutions on their respective disqualification from the process. Nonetheless, SC did not consolidate its case with that of a total of 52 party-list groups.

“Applying the guidelines issued by the Court to all existing party-list groups, including those which are now ready to participate in the May 2013 elections, would in fact be fulfilling the constitutional guarantee of equal protection, and would ensure that only the party-list groups that have complied with the Honorable Court’s guidelines would be voted upon,” the group’s lawyer, Maribel Alvarez – Domado, said.

The SC held that the party-list system should not be exclusive to sectoral groups. It said the process must be opened to regional parties and groups and national political organizations that do not represent marginalized sectors enumerated in the law.