Who will replace Zaldy Co as Ako Bicol party-list representative?

Who will replace resigned Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Zaldy Co after he resigned from the House of Representatives amid the investigation into alleged kickbacks from ghost and substandard flood control projects, and alleged insertions in the national budget?

Section 16 of the Party-list Law provides that “in case of vacancy in the seats reserved for party-list representatives, the vacancy should be automatically filled by the next representative from the list of nominees in the order submitted to the Commission on Elections by the same party, organization, or coalition, who shall serve for the unexpired term.”

If the list is exhausted, the same law mandates the party, organization, and coalition concerned to submit additional nominees.

In Ako Bicol party-list’s case, its third nominee based on its Comelec submission is Jan Franz Norbert Joselito Chan.

The Ako Bicol party-list won two seats in the 2025 midterm polls with over 1.07 million votes or 2.57% of the votes cast in the party-list race.

Ako Bicol party-list’s 2.57-percent voter share is good enough to earn them two House seats for their first two nominees, Co and Alfredo Garbin.

Under the law, a minimum of 2% voter share in a party-list race is good for one seat. Thereafter, an additional seat is granted to the party-list proportional to its additional percentage of voter share. 

However, only a maximum of three seats is allowed.

Those party-list groups, which earned less than 2% of the voter share in the party-list race, however, can still get one seat if the nominees of party-list groups that earned at least 2% are yet enough to fill the 64 seats allotted for party-list groups as provided for under the Constitution.

Aside from Co, Garbin, and Chan, who were the first, second and third nominees, respectively, the rest of the Ako Bicol party-list group nominees by order of rank include:

• Mary Grace Rementina
• Raiya Angela Azanza
• Robert Jhon Salazar
• Anelyn Sumanga
• Melinda Ebio
• Cherryl Barrios, and
• Jo Paulo Espiritu

The Ako Bicol party-list, alongside all the other party-list groups that vied for a House seat, submitted 10 names for their respective nominees in compliance with Comelec Resolution 11045 issued in August 2024, which states that party-list groups must submit names of 10 nominees from which the party-list representatives will be chosen in case it obtains the required number of votes.

The same Comelec Resolution states that the nominees “should be listed in the priority of preference or ranking” and that “nomination of less than 10 nominees won’t be accepted and be given due course by the Comelec.”

Comelec Resolution 11045 also provides that nominees who withdraw their acceptance to the nomination won’t be eligible for re-nomination by the same party-list group or nomination by other party-list groups. –NB, GMA Integrated News