SC denies Cha-cha link to ruling on House party-list seats

MANILA, Philippines – The recent Supreme Court’s order to increase the number of party-list members at the House of Representatives has nothing to do with moves to amend the Philippine Constitution, a spokesperson of the court said Wednesday. Gleoresty Guerra, SC deputy spokesperson, said that it was “a mere coincidence" that the ruling came amid efforts at the House of Representatives to overhaul the 1987 Constitution. On Tuesday, the high tribunal struck down as unconstitutional the two-percent threshold where 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 at the House. The SC also voided the procedure used in allotting party-list seats, thereby allowing all 55 seats allotted for sectoral groups to be filled. Under the procedure, party-list groups with at least two percent of votes are guaranteed one seat in Congress. The maximum is also three seats. The additional number of seats is computed by dividing each group’s total votes by the number of votes earned by the “first party," or the top vote-getter in the party-list race. The quotient is then multiplied by the additional number of seats gained by the “first party" beyond the two-percent minimum. Under this formula – which was penned by then Associate Justice Panganiban in 2000 – the 55 seats allotted for party-list representatives would not be filled. Cha-cha train derailed? If the House and the Senate were to vote jointly in amending the Constitution, at least three-fourths of the combined members of both houses are needed to convene Congress into a constituent assembly. A resolution seeking to convene Congress into a constituent assembly is reportedly backed by 174 lawmakers. Prior to the SC decision, the resolution needs at least 197 signatures – which constitute three fourths of the combined number (261) of members of the House (238) and Senate (23). The new SC ruling would increase the number of Congress members to 293 – 270 from the House, and 23 from the Senate. This would stack the odds against those in favor of Charter change because the number they need to meet the three-fourths requirement (221 members) would also increase. They would also have to secure 24 signatures of the 32 new party-list members to back the resolution. - Carlo Lorenzo and Sophia M. Dedace, GMANews.TV