NTF-ELCAC seeks status quo ante order vs. Gabriela proclamation

The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), through the Office of the Solicitor General, on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court (SC) to nullify the proclamation of the Gabriela Women’s Party. 

In its petition, it also asked the Court to issue a status quo ante order to restore the state where no party-list seat was awarded to Gabriela. 

It also seeks the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) and writ of preliminary injunction and, after due proceedings, to declare as permanent the TRO or writ of preliminary injunction.

Also on Wednesday, the Comelec proclaimed Gabriela as the 64th member of the House of Representatives. 

Earlier this year, Gabriela filed a complaint against NTF-ELCAC for alleged red-tagging and gender-based harassment

In an ambush interview, NTF-ELCAC Executive Director Ernesto Torres Jr. said they are seeking clarification from the SC on whether the increase in the number of allowable representatives is legal.

“We stand firmly in our belief based on the current jurisprudence, ‘yun nga ‘yung Banat v. Comelec, na nag se-set talaga, very clearly, set the limit of authorized party-list group members to 20 percent,” Torres said.

Sought for comment, Comelec chairperson George Garcia said the determination on the merits of the petition is the discretion of the Comelec.

“If the evidence is strong, the proclamation may be suspended; otherwise, it should proceed as a matter of course,” he said. 

Comelec earlier said it would proclaim an additional seat for the party-lists, rounding up the number of winning seats to 64 in the 20th Congress.

The Comelec had 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, 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, not the 20% as mandated in the Constitution.

“...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 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.

“Sa amin lang sana, and this is our appeal to the Comelec also, pareho sana ‘yung treatment natin sa iba't ibang mga party-list group. Kasi there are groups that are similarly situated,” Torres said.

(For us, and this is our appeal to the Comelec also, we hope that the treatment will be the same for the different party-list groups. Because there are groups that are similarly situated.)

“Meron silang pending case before the Comelec pero hindi na-proclaim… In fact, Kabataan party-list also has a pending case before the Comelec. So sana pareho na kung ikaw ay may pending case at hindi ka na-prinoklema, it should be applicable to everybody,” he added.

(They have a pending case before the Comelec but were not proclaimed… In fact, Kabataan party-list also has a pending case before the Comelec. So hopefully, if you have a pending case and you were not proclaimed, it should be applicable to everybody.) — BM, GMA Integrated News