Comelec may formally proclaim Gabriela on Wednesday — Garcia

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) may formally proclaim Gabriela Women’s Party as the 64th member of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, its chairperson said Monday.

Comelec chairperson George Erwin Garcia said he already signed the certificates of proclamation of Gabriela as well as the party-list group’s first nominee, former Rep. Sara Elago. 

It may officially be issued on September 17. 

“Kanina lamang ay pinirmahan ko ang Certificate of Proclamation, at ito ay kasalukuyang iniikot sa mga miyembro ng Komisyon upang hopefully by Wednesday ay mailabas na namin 'yan upang opisyal na nating maibigay 'yung Certificate of Proclamation ng Gabriela Party-list, at siyempre, 'yung Certificate of Proclamation kay dating Congresswoman [Sarah] Elago,” Garcia told reporters. 

(We already signed the certificates of proclamation for Gabriela and we are now circulating it to other members of the Commission. Hopefully, we’ll be able to issue it to Gabriela and to former Rep. Sara Elago by Wednesday.)

According to Garcia, it has yet to be seen if there will be a formal ceremony for the proclamation.

“Ang lumalabas ay apat na bakante kung saka-sakali ang available. Isa ‘yung pang-64th seat kasi ang contention ng Comelec ay dapat 64 at hindi 63. Dahil ipoproklama na ang Gabriela, siya ang pang-64,” said Garcia. 

(It seems that there will be four vacant seats in the party-list race. One will be given to Gabriela because of our contention that the seats should be 64 not 63.)

“‘Yung tatlo na papalit sa Duterte Youth ‘pag naging final and executory ang decision, ‘yan ang pag-uusapan namin,” he added.

(As for the three representatives that will replace the nominees of Duterte Youth, we have yet to discuss that.)

Elago calls for official proclamation

In a separate interview, Elago welcomed the pronouncements that the Gabriela Women’s Party will take the 64th seat in the Congress. 

However, the former legislator said the pronouncement was “long overdue” and called for their swift proclamation to allow the party-list to participate in the ongoing budget deliberations and legislative inquiry on the anomalous flood control projects. 

“Wine-welcome ng Gabriela Women’s Party ang magandang balita na ang 64th seat ay mapupunta sa Gabriela,” said Elago.

(We welcome the good news that we will take helm of the 64th seat.)

“Sa totoo lang, sa tingin namin, long overdue na ito. Halos three months na ang nakalipas kaya nananawagan kami.. na i-proklama na ang  Gabriela Women’s Party para makalahok tayo sa critical period na ito sa Congress,” she added. 

Once proclaimed, Elago said they will push for the divorce bill, SOGIE bill, and legislations seeking to increase wages and to lower prices of commodities.

“Magkakaroon tayo ng pagpapatuloy ng laban at asahan nila na ang boses ng Gabriela WP ay tunay, palaban, makabayan na kinatawan ng kababaihan para sa babae, bata, LGBTQIA+ at bayan,” she added.

The Comelec over the weekend announced Gabriela will assume the 64th seat in the Lower Congress. This developed after the poll body earlier said it will proclaim an additional seat for the party-lists, rounding up the number of winning seats to 64 in the 20th Congress.

The recomputation of the seat allocation came after the Philreca Party-list filed a motion suggesting that the correct allocation of party-list seats must be 64. The poll body then recognized the motion. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News