BANAT v. COMELEC
586 SCRA 210
FACTS:
The 14 May 2007 elections included the elections for the party-list representatives.In July 2007, the COMELEC, promulgated a Resolution which proclaimed thirteen parties as winners in the party-list elections, namely: BUHAY, Bayan Muna, CIBAC, Gabriela’s Women Gabriela, APEC, A Teacher, Akbayan! AKBAYAN, Alagad, BUTIL, COOP-NATCCO, Anak Pawis, ARC, and Abono.COMELEC subsequently enacted another resolution declaring additional seats allocated to the appropriate parties.
Bayan Muna, Abono, and A Teacher asked the COMELEC to reconsider its decision to use theVeteransformula as stated in its NBC Resolution No. 07-60 because theVeteransformula is violative of the Constitution and of R.A. No. 7941.On the same day, the COMELEC denied reconsideration during the proceedings of the NBC.Aside from the thirteen party-list organizations proclaimed on 9 July 2007, the COMELEC proclaimed three other party-list organizations as qualified parties entitled to one guaranteed seat under the Party-List System:AGAP, AMIN and An Waray.
RELEVANT ISSUES
· Is the three-seat limit in Section 11(b) of RA 7941 constitutional? YES.
· Is the two percent threshold prescribed in Section 11(b) of RA 7941 to qualify for one seat constitutional? NO.
· How shall the party-list representative seats be allocated?
HELD
Section 5(1), Article VI of the Constitution states that the “House of Representatives shall be composed of not more than two hundred and fifty members, unless otherwise fixed by law.”The House of Representatives shall be composed of district representatives and party-list representatives.The Constitution allows the legislature to modify the number of the members of the House of Representatives.
Section 5(2), Article VI of the Constitution, on the other hand, states the ratio of party-list representatives to the total number of representatives.We compute the number of seats available to party-list representatives from the number of legislative districts.On this point, we do not deviate from the first formula inVeterans, thus: (FORMULA/COMPUTATION OMITTED).
This formula allows for the corresponding increase in the number of seats available for party-list representatives whenever a legislative district is created by law. Since the 14thCongress of the Philippines has 220 district representatives, there are 55 seats available to party-list representatives. (FORMULA/COMPUTATION OMITTED)
After prescribing the ratio of the number of party-list representatives to the total number of representatives,the Constitution left the manner of allocating the seats available to party-list representatives to the wisdom of the legislature.
We rule that, in computing the allocation ofadditional seats, the continued operation of the two percent threshold for the distribution of the additional seats as found in the second clause of Section 11(b) of R.A. No. 7941 isunconstitutional. This Court finds that the two percent threshold makes it mathematically impossible to achieve the maximum number of available party list seats when the number of available party list seats exceeds 50. The continued operation of the two percent threshold in the distribution of the additional seats frustrates the attainment of the permissive ceiling that 20% of the members of the House of Representatives shall consist of party-list representatives.