"Party-list representatives" redirects here.

For party-list representatives elsewhere, see list MP.

For the political concept, see party-list proportional representation.
Party-list representation in the House of Representatives of the Philippines refers to a system
in which 20% of the House of Representatives is elected. While the House is predominantly elected
by a plurality voting system, known as a first-past-the-post system, party-list representatives are
elected by a type of party-list proportional representation. The 1987 Constitution of the
Philippines created the party-list system. Originally, the party-list was open to underrepresented
community sectors or groups, including labor, peasant, urban poor, indigenous cultural, women,
youth, and other such sectors as may be defined by law (except the religious sector). However, a
2013 Supreme Court decision clarified that the party-list is a system of proportional representation
open to various kinds of groups and parties, and not an exercise exclusive to marginalized sectors.
National parties or organizations and regional parties or organizations do not need to organize along
sectoral lines and do not need to represent any marginalized and underrepresented sector.[1]
The determination of what parties are allowed to participate—who their nominees should be, how the
winners should be determined, and the allocation of seats for the winning parties—has been
controversial ever since the party-list election was first contested in 1998 and has resulted in several
landmark COMELEC and Supreme Court cases.
Party-list representatives are indirectly elected via a party-list election wherein the voter votes for the
party and not for the party's nominees (closed list); the votes are then arranged in descending order,
with the parties that won at least 2% of the national vote given one seat, with additional seats
determined by a formula dependent on the number of votes garnered by the party. No party wins
more than three seats. If the number of sectoral representatives does not reach 20% of the total
number of representatives in the House, parties that haven't won seats but garnered enough votes to
place them among the top sectoral parties are given a seat each until the 57 seats are filled. A voter
therefore has two parallel votes in House of Representatives elections—for district representative and
for the under-represented sectoral-party list representative/s. Neither vote affects the other.
Party-list representation makes use of the tendency for proportional representation systems to
favor single-issue parties, and applies that tendency to allow underrepresented sectors to represent
themselves in the law-making process.

Contents

 1Manner of election
o 1.1Constitution
o 1.2Party-List System Act
o 1.3Contestations
 1.3.1Veterans Federation Party et al. vs. COMELEC
 1.3.2BANAT vs. COMELEC
 1.3.3Summary
 1.3.4Example
 2Issues concerning party-list group nominees
o 2.1Major parties' involvement
o 2.2Ang Bagong Bayani-OFW Labor Party vs. COMELEC
o 2.3BANAT vs. COMELEC
 3Results
 4References
 5Further reading
 6See also

Manner of election[edit]
Constitution[edit]
The Constitution mandates that the sectoral representatives shall compose 20% of the House of
Representatives. For three consecutive terms after the ratification of the constitution, one-half of the
seats allocated to party-list representatives were filled "by selection or election."[2] For
the 1987, 1992 and 1995 elections, the president appointed sectoral representatives, subject to the
confirmation from the Commission on Appointments, half of whose members are derived from the
House of Representatives.

Sectoral
Election Method Legislative districts representatives Underhang
20% quota Seats won
R.A.794
1998 206 52 14 38
1
2001 VFP 205 51 14 37
2004 VFP 209 52 24 28
VFP 22 32
2007 218 54
BANAT 53 1
2010 BANAT 229 57 56 1 Party-
List
System Act[edit]

On March 3, 1995, Republic Act No. 7941 or the Party-List System Act was signed into law. It
mandated that "the state shall promote proportional representation in the election of representatives
to the House of Representatives through a party-list system". The five political parties with the highest
number of members at the start of the 10th Congress of the Philippines were banned from
participating. Each voter can vote one party via closed list; votes are then tallied nationwide as
one at-large district, with the number of sectoral representatives not to surpass 20% of the total
number of representatives. The law provided that each party that has 2% of the national vote be
entitled one seat each, and an additional seat for every 2% of the vote thereafter until a party has
three seats. This means that a party can win the maximum three seats if it surpasses 6% of the
national vote.[3]
While the law was first used for the 1998 election, and several parties did meet the 2% quota during
the succeeding elections, they did not fill up the required 20% allocation for party-list representatives
of the constitution. Furthermore, the votes for parties that had more than 6% of the vote were
considered wasted.[4] Ateneo de Manila University mathematics professor Felix Muga II said that "Any
seat allocation formula that imposes a seat-capping mechanism on the party-list proportional
representation voting system contradicts the social justice provision of the 1987 Constitution."[5]
Any vacancy is filled by the person next in line on the list; in cases where a seated sectoral
representative switches parties, that representative loses their seat and the person next in line on the
list assumes the seat.

Contestations[edit]
Veterans Federation Party et al. vs. COMELEC[edit]
 Party-list results
2001:

In Note: Majority of the parties were disqualified after the election.

2000,
2004:
the V
etera 2007:
ns
2010:
Key:
 Inner ring: Proportion of votes, excluding spoiled/invalid votes.
o Gray: Parties that did not win seats.
 Middle ring (2007 only): Proportion of seats won as per VFP vs. COMELEC.
 Outer ring: Proportion of seats won (for 2007, this is the final allocation as per BANAT vs.
COMELEC).
o Black: Unfilled seats.

Federation Party (VFP), the Akbayan! Citizens' Action Party and several other parties sued the
COMELEC which led a case in the Supreme Court; the court ruling changed the way how the seats are
allocated for the winning parties. In 1998, only 14 representatives were elected out of 13 winning parties,
well short of the then 52 representatives needed to fill up 20% of the House. The so-called "Panganiban
formula," named after Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban, calculates that the number of seats a party will
win is dependent on the number of votes of the party with the highest number of votes.[6]
The court maintained the four inviolable parameters:
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.”

The court came up with the following procedure on how to determine how many seats a party wins.
First, the party with the highest number of votes gets at least one seat. It can win additional seats for
every 2% of the national vote until it reaches the three-seat limit.
Therefore:

where:

 TPs is the number of seats of the top party.

 g is the percentage of votes garnered by the sectoral organization,
For the other parties surpassing the 2% threshold, they all automatically win one seat; additional
seats will be won according to the following formula.
:
where:

 S is the number of seats

 PV is the votes for the party
 TP is the votes of the top party.
 TPs is the number of seats of the top party.
 The product, disregarding integers, is the number of additional seats for the party.
Prior to the adopting the "Panganiban formula," the court considered applying the Niemayer
formula used in the allocation of seats in the German Bundestag. However, since R.A. 7941
limits the maximum number of seats for each party to three, of the existence of a 2% quota,
and that 20% of the seats can be filled up, the court instead devised the formula above to
ensure that the 20% allocation for sectoral representatives would not be exceeded, the 2%
threshold will be upheld, the three-seat limit enforced and the proportional representation be
respected.[7] The formula was first used in determining the result of the 2001, and was first
applied in the 2004 elections.
The use of this formula by the COMELEC had been labeled by certain groups as to
"annihilate independent voices in the House," according to Akbayan representative Etta
Rosales.[8] The court upheld this in subsequent cases, such as the Partido ng
Manggagawa vs. COMELEC and Citizens' Battle Against Corruption  vs. COMELEC.[9]
Panganiban in 2010 remarked in a lecture at the Ateneo Law School that "It's very
complicated and there must be an easier formula to compute," adding that the party-list law
has to be amended by Congress.[10]
BANAT vs. COMELEC[edit]
In 2007, another party-list group, the Barangay Association for National Advancement and
Transparency (BANAT, now Barangay Natin!) sued the COMELEC for not proclaiming the
full number of party-list representatives (they were not among on those who were proclaimed
winners). As with the other cases, the Supreme Court condensed all the cases to one case.
The court ruled on April 21, 2009 that the 2% election threshold unconstitutional, and
stipulated that for every four legislative districts created, one seat for sectoral
representatives should be created; this thereby increased the sectoral seats in the 14th
Congress from 22 to 55; the Supreme Court, however, upheld the 3-seat cap.[11]
To determine the number of seats for sectoral representatives, the formula for the quotient
is:

where:

 S is the number of seats allocated for sectoral representation,

 D is the total number of district representatives, and
 D / 0.8 is the total number of members of the House.
To get the first guaranteed seat, a sectoral party or organization should at least get 2%
of the total votes cast for partly list elections. The formula for the quotient is:

where:

 g is the percentage of votes garnered by the sectoral organization,

 P is the total number of votes gained by the sectoral organization, and
 V is the total number of votes cast in the party list representation election.
Therefore:

If the total number of guaranteed seats awarded is less than the total number of
seats reserved for sectoral representatives (S), the unassigned seats will awarded
in the second round of seat allocation. To get the number of additional seats, this
formula will be followed.
where:

  is the total number of additional seats awarded to the sectoral organization,
 S is the number of seats allocated for party-list representatives,

  is the total number awarded seats   in the first round of seat allocation,
and
 g is the percentage of votes garnered by the sectoral organization.

Note:   should appear as whole integer.

If the total number of seats awarded after two rounds is still less than the total
number of seats reserved for sectoral representatives (S), the remaining seats
will be assigned to sectoral organizations next in rank (one seat each

organization) whose   result is 0 until all available seats are completely

distributed.

where:

  is the total number of sectoral organizations next in rank (in Round 2) to be given
with one seat,
 S is the number of seats allocated for party-list representatives,

  is the total number awarded seats in the first round of seat allocation, and

  is the total number awarded seats in the second round of seat allocation.
This is essentially a Hare quota, with the following exceptions:

 The 2% election threshold automatically awards parties one seat; this

means that the total seats that will be disputed is the difference of the
number of party-list seats and the number of parties that surpassed the
threshold.
 The fractional remainder is disregarded. The seats that could've been
distributed from the fractional remainders are given to parties that
quotas less than 1 after the threshold.
 The party cannot win more than three seats. With the large number of
parties contesting, this means the share of the votes the parties get
are small—in 2010, the party with the most votes (Ako Bicol Political
Party) won 5.20% of the vote—the only way a party's votes can be
wasted is if its quota after the threshold is 4 or more. This can be
affected if several parties surpassed the threshold (thus lessening the
number of seats to be distributed), or if a party wins via a landslide. In
2010, AKB's quota after threshold was 2.33, or, disregarding decimals,
2. This entitled them to 2 additional seats aside from the automatic 1
seat they've won by surpassing the threshold.
 Senator Joker Arroyo criticized the ruling of the Supreme Court, saying that
the court "overreached itself and engaged in judicial legislation." Arroyo
later compared with parties with between "155,000 to 197,000 votes... a
measly 1 percent to 1.24 percent of the votes" to a city which needs a
population of 250,000 or more to obtain its own legislative district.[12]

Method First seat Second seat Third seat

R.A. 7941 2% of vote 4% of vote 6% of vote

Party with most votes: 4% Party with most votes: 6%

of the vote of the vote

VFP vs.
2% of the vote
COMELEC Other parties: Total votes divided by votes of the party
with most votes; quotient will be multiplied by the
number of seats the party with the most votes have.
Product, disregarding decimals, is the number of seats.

2% of the vote

BANAT vs. Hare quota, without decimals, from the seats that are
COMELEC If quota has not been met, not yet allocated.
parties with less than 2% of the
preferences will get one seat
until quota is met.

Summary[edit]
Example[edit]
In 2010, there are 57 party-list seats being contested, with 29,311,294 valid
votes cast, and 12 parties having at least 2% of the vote.
Ako Bicol Political Party topped the vote, receiving 1,524,006 votes or
5.20% of the vote.

 First round:

 Second round:
Disregarding decimals, 

 Both rounds:

 Hence, AKB won three seats in the House of

Representatives.
Akbayan Citizens' Action Party received
1,061,947 votes or 3.62% of the vote.

 First round:

 Second round:

Disregarding decimals, 

 Both rounds:

 Hence, Akbayan won two seats in the

House of Representatives.
Alagad received 227,281 or 0.78% of the
vote.

 First round:

 Second round: At this point, 35 seats

have already been awarded.
 Disregarding decimals, 

 Both rounds:

 However, not all seats have been

distributed. Therefore: Alagad won one seat in the House of
Representatives.

Issues concerning party-

list group nominees[edit]
Major parties'
involvement[edit]
While the party-list system has been used by some sectors that have not been able to participate in
government in order to have a voice in Congress, allegations from left-leaning party-list
organizations state that several parties were used as fronts by then-President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo's ruling administration to further its interests. Parties such as 1-UTAK,
purportedly representing transport groups, and PACYAW, which claims to advocate
athletes and sports personnel, have government officials for nominees.[13] The first nominee
of Ang Galing Pinoy, for instance, a group claiming to represent security guards
and tricycle drivers, was former Pampanga 2nd district representative Mikey Arroyo, the
son of the former president; Arroyo won a seat through Ang Galing Pinoy in the 2010
election.[14]
On the other hand, a disqualification case had been brought up against the left-leaning parties in
the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance) bloc including Bayan
Muna (Nation First), Kabataan Party-list (Youth Party-list), GABRIELA Women's Party,
and Anakpawis. The case alleged that the personalities in these parties were merely
pursuing "ideological objectives" within Congress to support the outlawed Communist Party
of the Philippines' objective of overthrowing the ruling system through "bloody means."[15]

Ang Bagong Bayani-OFW Labor Party vs. COMELEC[edit]

In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled in Ang Bagong Bayani-OFW Labor Party vs. COMELEC that nominees
"must be Filipino citizens belonging to marginalized and unrepresented sectors,
organizations and parties, as the constitution intended to give genuine power to the people,
not only by giving more law to those who have less in life, but more so by enabling them to
become veritable lawmakers themselves."[16]

BANAT vs. COMELEC[edit

In the same BANAT vs. COMELEC case stated above, while the ponencia thereof pointed out that neither
the 1987 Constitution nor R.A. 7941 prohibits major political parties from participating in the
party-list election, it was emphasized that they must do so by establishing or forming
coalitions with sectoral organizations for electoral or political purposes. In fact, Associate
Justice Antonio Carpio noted that "it is not necessary that the party-list organization's
nominee 'wallow in poverty, destitution and infirmity' as there is no financial status required
by the law."[17] This effectively allowed anyone to be nominated by a party participating in
the party-list election.However, by a vote of 8–7, the Supreme Court still decided to
continue disallowing major political parties from participating in the party-list elections,
directly or indirectly.

Results[edit]
 Seats Topnotcher Turnout
Part
icip
atin
Year Se
g Und Losing % of
part Disp ats Valid % of % of
Won erha parties Party Votes valid Total
ies uted wo votes total voters
ng ' vote votes
n

199 29,285,77
123 51 14 37 63% APEC 503,487 5.50% 2 9,155,309 31.26% 69%
8 5

200 Bayan 1,708,25 15,118,81 29,474,30

162 51 14 37 36% 11.30% 3 51.29% 51%
1 Muna 3 5 9

200 Bayan 1,203,30 13,241,97 33,510,09

66 52 28 24 35% 9.46% 3 39.52% 40%
4 Muna 5 4 2

200 1,169,33 15,950,90 32,800,05

93 54 53 1 33% Buhay 7.30% 3 48.63% 49%
7 8 0 4

201 Ako 1,524,00 30,092,61 38,149,37

178 57 57 0 30% 5.20% 3 78.88% 79%
0 Bikol 6 3 1

201 1,270,60 28,600,12 40,144,20

112 58 56 2 25% Buhay 4.60% 3 71.24% 71%
3 8 4 7

201 Ako 1,664,97 32,377,84 44,980,36

115 59 59 0 22% 5.14% 3 71.98% 72%
6 Bikol 5 1 2

201 ACT- 2,651,98 27,884,79 47,296,44

134 61 61 0 23% 9.51% 3 58.96% 74%
9 CIS 7 0 2