G.R. No. 206952 Case Digest

G.R. No. 206952, October 22, 2013

Abang Lingkod Party-list

vs COMELEC

Facts:

This is a petition for certiorari filed by Abang Lingkod challenging the May 2013 resolution issued by COMELEC cancelling the Abang Lingkod's party-list registration.

COMELEC says that it is not enough that the party-list organization claim representation of the marginalized and underrepresented because representation is easy to claim.  Records shows that Abang Lingkod failed to stablish its track record which is important to prove that the party-list continuously represents the marginalized.

Abang Lingkod merely offered pictures of some alleged activities they conducted after the 2010 elections. These pictures appears to be edited. Under The Party-List System Act, a group’s registration may be cancelled for declaring unlawful statements in its petition. Photoshopping images to establish a fact that did not occur is tantamount to declaring unlawful statements. It is on this ground that the Commission cancels ABANG LINGKOD’s registration.

Abang Lingkod filed a motion for reconsideration but it was denied by COMELEC, thus this current Petition for certiorari.

Issues:

I. Whether national, regional, and sectoral parties and organizations are required under the law to show their genuineness and bona fide existence in determining if they are eligible for registration with the Commission on Elections; and

II. Whether the Commission on Elections gravely abused its discretion in cancelling ABANG LINGKOD’s registration under the party-list system.

Ruling:

(1) A party, by law, is either "a political party or a sectoral party or a coalition of parties."17 A political party is defined as:

x x x 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. (Emphasis provided)

A party 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."

On the other hand, a sectoral party:

x x x 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 interest and concerns of their sector.

R.A. No. 7941 does not require national and regional parties or organizations to represent the "marginalized and underrepresented" sectors. To require all national and regional parties under the party-list system to represent the "marginalized and underrepresented" is to deprive and exclude, by judicial fiat, ideology-based and cause-oriented parties from the party-list system.

Petitioner is a sectoral party-list group that purports to represent the peasant farmers. However, it did not even comply with the bare requirement that sectoral party-list groups representing a sector should show that their principal advocacy pertains to the special interest and concerns of their sector. As correctly argued by the public respondent, petitioner will not, therefore, qualify even under the new parameters set forth in Atong Paglaum.

(2) COMELEC did not commit grave abuse of discretion.