Comelec disqualifies with finality five party-list groups

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has canceled the registration of five party-list groups with pending cases to the Supreme Court, effectively removing their votes from the party-list derby.

According to a Comelec resolution promulgated May 24, 2013, the poll body resolved that the cancellation of the registration of the following five groups as "final and executory":

• Coalition of Associations of Senior Citizens in the Philippines
• Philippine Coconut Producers Federation
• Abang Lingkod
• Binhi-Partido ng mga Magsasaka para sa mga Magsasaka
• Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy

Despite its disqualification, Senior Citizens placed at 10th with 671,916 votes in the Comelec's first tally of official count.

Brillantes said Senior Citizens would be disqualified regardless of the number of votes. The group was not among those proclaimed Friday morning despite its significant number of votes.

The canceled groups were earlier disqualified by the Comelec after the Supreme Court remanded their cases back to the poll body. They later appealed to the high court for an immediate issuance of a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction.

The high court, however, has not granted their petition six days after they received the resolutions canceling their registration. The date of receipts of the resolution spanned from May 11 to May 15, 2013.

"(N)o temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction was issued by the Supreme Court of their petitions to this date," their latest resolution read.

"Tatapusin lang namin 'yung period within which they can issue a TRO. Then we can disqualify them already," Brillantes said in a chance interview.

Brillantes earlier said they would remove these groups' votes if they failed to have their petitions granted.

Meanwhile, seven other party-list groups were also axed but have not appealed to the high court—Mikey Arroyo's Ang Galing Pinoy, retired general Jovito Palparan's Bantay party-list, Agapay ng Indigenous Peoples' RIghts Alliance (A-IPRA), Atong Paglaum, Social Movement for Active Reform and Transparency (SMART), 1st Kabalikat ng Bayan  Ginhawang Sangkatauhan (1st-KABAGIS), and Ako Agila sa Nagkakaisang Magsasaka. — Marc Jayson Cayabyab/KBK, GMA News