Comelec to proclaim additional party-list winner, rounds up seats to 64

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Wednesday that it will proclaim an additional seat for the party-lists, rounding up the number of winning seats to 64 in the 20th Congress. 

“Tayo po ay sumulat sa Commission En Banc, sinabi natin na base sa ating pag-aaral, dapat po at 64 at hindi 63 [...] Sapagkat ang 20% ng Saligang Batas ay dapat po 64 [...] Nag-agree yung mga kasamahan natin na unanimous po yung En Banc resolution ng Commission,” said Comelec chairperson George Garcia in a chance interview with reporters. 

(We wrote to the Commission En Banc and said that based on our study, it should be 64 and not 63 [...] Because 20% of the Constitution should be 64 [...] Our colleagues agreed, and the Commission's En Banc resolution was unanimous.) 

The recomputation of the seat allocation came after the Philreca Party-list filed a motion last May suggesting that the correct allocation of party-list seats must be 64. The poll body then recognized the motion. 

The Comelec earlier declared 63 seats available, which are occupied by representatives from 54 party-list groups. Three party-list groups have three representatives each, and three party-list groups have two representatives each. The rest of the winning party-list groups got one seat each to fill out all the seats available.

But according to the minutes of referendum and consultation conducted by the Comelec last July 17, the poll body calculated that allocating 63 seats for party-lists only translates to 19.8738% of the 317 total seats in the House of Representatives. 

Under Section 5, Article VI of the Constitution and the Party-List System Act, party-list representatives shall constitute 20% of the total members of the House, including those under the party-list

“...Allocating 64 seats for party-list would translate to 20.1258% of the 218 seats in the House of Representatives, thereby complying with the constitutional requirement of 20% seat allocation of party-lists in the House of Representatives,” the minutes read. 

The Comelec said that it has already talked with the House of Representatives.  But it noted that consultation with its supervisory and law departments on who should take the 64th seat is ongoing. 

“Kasi hindi kami mapo-proclaim nang hindi rin naman tatanggapin ng House of Representatives sapagkat it is an issue of membership. At yun po natanggap namin yung sulat nung isang linggo lamang ng Secretary General at ang sabi sa atin, it is an absolute discretion of the Comelec kung sino ipoproklama,” said Garcia.

“Sa part po ng House, ministerial daw po ang kanilang duty, natatanggap lang sila ng lahat ng certificates of proclamation na manggagaling sa Commission on Elections," he added. 

(Because we can't make a proclamation if the House of Representatives won't accept it, since it is an issue of membership. And we received a letter just last week from the Secretary General, and he told us that it is the absolute discretion of the Comelec as to who will be proclaimed. On the part of the House, their duty is apparently ministerial; they will just receive all the certificates of proclamation that will come from the Commission on Elections.) 

“But despite that, kahit nakatanggap kami ng sulat, minarapat pa rin namin konsultahin ang aming supervisory at law, sino ang pang-64? Sino ang i-recommend nyo na i-proklama na pang-64?” he added. 

(But despite that, even though we received a letter, we decided that it’s best to consult with our supervisory and law departments: Who should be the 64th? Who do you recommend we proclaim as the 64th?) —LDF, GMA Integrated News