G.R. No. 179271
(1) The House of Representatives shall be
Barangay Association For National Advancement and Transparency
(BANAT), petitioner
Vs.
COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS (sitting as the National Board of Canvassers),
respondent
Ponente: Justice Carpio
(Note: this is a consolidated case…. Classmates if you want to see the actual tables
made by COMELEC in proclaiming the parties please refer to the full case. Tricky
kasi ilipat dito sa digest yun baka magkamali pa ako)
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Facts: Petitioner BANAT filed a petition for certiorari and mandamus, questioning
the resolution passed by COMELEC as NBC declaring the petition of BANAT to
COMELEC, to proclaim the full number of Party-list representatives provided by the
Constitution, as moot and academic.
The May 2007 elections included the elections for party-list representatives
wherein BANAT filed above mentioned petition in June 27, 2007. The COMELEC as
NBC promulgated a resolution on July 9, 2007, proclaiming 13 parties as winners
(BUHAY, CIBAC, GABRIELA, APEC, A TEACHER, AKBAYAN, BUTIL, COOP-NATCO,
ANAK-PAWIS, ARC and ABONO) basing their computation to the formula given in
Veterans Federation Party v. COMELEC to get the total number of seats of each
winning parties.
BANAT, in its petition, prayed for the following reliefs:
1. That the full number (20% as mandated by constitution) be proclaimed
2. Par. (b), Sec. 11 of RA 7941 (which prescribe the 2% threshold votes) be
harmonized with Sec. 5, Art. VI of Constitution and Sec. 12 of the said
republic act
3. The 3-seat limit prescribed by RA 7941 be applied
4. (Inititally), all party-list groups shall be given the number of seats
corresponding to every 2% of the votes they receive
5. (Alternative) declare as unconstitutional Sec. 11 of RA 7941
COMELEC declared such petition moot and academic but declared three more
additional parties (AGAP, AMIN and An Waray). BANAT brought their own issues as
well as the other parties of the other case in consolidation with this one. However,
SC defined the following issues:
ISSUES:
1. Is the twenty percent allocation in Sec 5 (2), Art. VI of the Constitution
mandatory or merely a ceiling?
2. Is the three seat limit in Sec 11(b) of RA 7941 constitutional?
3. Is the 2% threshold prescribed in the same RA constitutional?
4. How shall the party-list representative seats be allocated?
5. Does the Constitution prohibit the major political parties from participating
in the party-list in the party-list elections?
Held:
The SC finds a partial merit in this petition. It held that there was some minor
problem in the mathematical computation presented in the Veterans case. The
Court tried to harmonize the Constitution and RA 7941:
Section 5.
composed of not more than two hundred and fifty members,
unless otherwise fixed by law, who shall be elected from
legislative districts apportioned among the provinces, cities, and
the Metropolitan Manila area in accordance with the number of
their respective inhabitants, and on the basis of a uniform and
progressive ratio, and those who, as provided by law, shall be
elected through a party-list system of registered national,
regional, and sectoral parties or organizations.
(2) The party-list representatives shall constitute twenty
per centum of the total number of representatives including those
under the party-list. For three consecutive terms after the
ratification of this Constitution, one-half of the seats allocated to
party-list representatives shall be filled, as provided by law, by
selection or election from the labor, peasant, urban poor,
indigenous cultural communities, women, youth, and such other
sectors as may be provided by law, except the religious sector.
Section 11 (RA 7941). Number of Party-List
Representatives. — The party-list representatives shall constitute
twenty per centum (20%) of the total number of the members of
the House of Representatives including those under the party-list.
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Applying the formula based on the above article of the Constitution, there are 55
allocated seats in the House of Representatives. SC ruled that, in computing the
allocation of additional seats, the continued operation of the two percent
threshold for the distribution of the additional seats as found in the second clause
of Section 11(b) of R.A. No. 7941 is unconstitutional. This Court finds that the
two percent threshold makes it mathematically impossible to achieve the maximum
number of available party list seats when the number of available party list seats
exceeds 50. The continued operation of the two percent threshold in the
distribution of the additional seats frustrates the attainment of the permissive
ceiling that 20% of the members of the House of Representatives shall consist of
party-list representatives.
To illustrate: There are 55 available party-list seats. Suppose there are 50
million votes cast for the 100 participants in the party list elections. A party that
has two percent of the votes cast, or one million votes, gets a guaranteed seat. Let
us further assume that the first 50 parties all get one million votes. Only 50 parties
get a seat despite the availability of 55 seats. Because of the operation of the two
percent threshold, this situation will repeat itself even if we increase the available
party-list seats to 60 seats and even if we increase the votes cast to 100
million. Thus, even if the maximum number of parties get two percent of the votes
for every party, it is always impossible for the number of occupied party-list seats to
exceed 50 seats as long as the two percent threshold is present.
In determining the allocation of seats for party-list representatives under Section 11
of R.A. No. 7941, the following procedure shall be observed:
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
Neither the Constitution nor R.A. No. 7941 prohibits major political parties from
participating in the party-list system. On the contrary, the framers of the
Constitution clearly intended the major political parties to participate in party-list
elections through their sectoral wings. In fact, the members of the Constitutional
Commission voted down, 19-22, any permanent sectoral seats, and in the
alternative the reservation of the party-list system to the sectoral groups. In
defining a “party” that participates in party-list elections as either “a political party
or a sectoral party,” R.A. No. 7941 also clearly intended that major political parties
will participate in the party-list elections. Excluding the major political parties in
party-list elections is manifestly against the Constitution, the intent of the
Constitutional Commission, and R.A. No. 7941. This Court cannot engage in socio-
political engineering and judicially legislate the exclusion of major political parties
from the party-list elections in patent violation of the Constitution and the law.
Read together, R.A. No. 7941 and the deliberations of the Constitutional
Commission state that major political parties are allowed to establish, or form
coalitions with, sectoral organizations for electoral or political purposes. There
should not be a problem if, for example, the Liberal Party participates in the party-
list election through the Kabataang Liberal ng Pilipinas (KALIPI), its sectoral youth
wing. The other major political parties can thus organize, or affiliate with, their
chosen sector or sectors. To further illustrate, the Nacionalista Party can establish a
fisherfolk wing to participate in the party-list election, and this fisherfolk wing can
field its fisherfolk nominees. Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (KAMPI) can do the
same for the urban poor.
Neither the Constitution nor R.A. No. 7941 mandates the filling-up of the entire
20% allocation of party-list representatives found in the Constitution. The
Constitution, in paragraph 1, Section 5 of Article VI, left the determination of the
number of the members of the House of Representatives to Congress: “The House
of Representatives shall be composed of not more than two hundred and fifty
members, unless otherwise fixed by law, x x x.” The 20% allocation of party-list
representatives is merely a ceiling; party-list representatives cannot be more than
20% of the members of the House of Representatives.
Note: Here are the parameters used by COMELEC in determining winning party-list
representatives, as discussed in the Veterans case:
First, the twenty percent allocation — the combined number
of all party-list congressmen shall not exceed twenty percent of
the total membership of the House of Representatives, including
those elected under the party list;
Second, the two percent threshold — only those parties
garnering a minimum of two percent of the total valid votes cast
for the party-list system are “qualified” to have a seat in the
House of Representatives;
Third, the three-seat limit — each qualified party,
regardless of the number of votes it actually obtained, is entitled
to a maximum of three seats; that is, one “qualifying” and two
additional seats;
Fourth, proportional representation— the additional seats
which a qualified party is entitled to shall be computed “in
proportion to their total number of votes
Formula:
Number of seats available Number of seats available to
to legislative districts x .20 = party-list representatives
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Definition of Terms:
(a) The party-list system is a mechanism of proportional
representation in the election of representatives to the House of
Representatives from national, regional and sectoral parties or
organizations or coalitions thereof registered with the Commission
on Elections (COMELEC). Component parties or organizations of a
coalition may participate independently provided the coalition of
which they form part does not participate in the party-list system.
(b) A party means either a political party or a sectoral
party or a coalition of parties.
(c) A political party refers to an organized group of
citizens advocating an ideology or platform, principles and policies
for the general conduct of government and which, as the most
immediate means of securing their adoption, regularly nominates
and supports certain of its leaders and members as candidates for
public office.
It is a national party when its constituency is spread over
the geographical territory of at least a majority of the regions. It
is a regional party when its constituency is spread over the
geographical territory of at least a majority of the cities and
provinces comprising the region.
(d) A sectoral party refers to an organized group of
citizens belonging to any of the sectors enumerated in Section 5
hereof whose principal advocacy pertains to the special interests
and concerns of their sector,

(e) A sectoral organization refers to a group of citizens or

a coalition of groups of citizens who share similar physical
attributes or characteristics, employment, interests or concerns.

(f) A coalition refers to an aggrupation of duly registered

national, regional, sectoral parties or organizations for political
and/or election purposes.