Ang Bagong Bayani v Commission on Elections (COMELEC)

GR No. 147589
June 26, 2001

Sec. 5 of Article 6: The Legislative Department

(Characteristics of political party to qualify under party list)

FACTS:

Petitions under Rule 65 of the Rules of Court, challenging Omnibus Resolution No. 3785 issued
by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on March 26, 2001. This Resolution approved the
participation of 154 organizations and parties, including those herein impleaded, in the 2001
party-list elections.

Commission on Elections receved petitions from political parties. Verifications were made as to
the status and capacity of the party and organizations, schedules for hearing were conducted
everyday until the last party was heard. Due to the number of petitions, and the observance of the
legal procedures. 2 divisions were formed just to speed up the process of hearing the petitions.
Petitioner filed their manifestations and their intentions was to participate in the party list
elections. Other parties where the decision was not favorable to them were filing for
reconsiderations and also with the intention of participating in the party list elections. Akbayan
partylist filed to the COMELEC a petition for the deletion of some partylist and the votes not to
be counted. The instruction given to the Akbayan party list is to file comments within the three
days of notification. Dissatisfied with the disqualification cases, Ang Bagong Bayani OFW
party filed a petition challenging the Omnibus Resolution 3785, and also Bayan Muna partylist
also filed the same petition.

Issue:

1.Whether or not political parties may participate in the elections.

2. Whether or not the Commission on Elections committed grave abuse of discretion in

promulgating Omnibus Resolution No. 3785

Held:

1. YES. Political parties may participate in the elections. Under the Constitution and RA 7941,
party lists cannot be disqualified from the elections, on the ground that they are political parties.
Section 5, Article VI of the Constitution provides that members of the House of Representatives
may "be elected through a party-list system of registered national, regional, and sectoral parties
or organizations."

Lorenz James C. Luistro

2. YES, the Commission on Elections failed to appreciate fully the clear policy of the law and
the Constitution. The OSG as its counsel admitted before the Court that any group, even the non-
marginalized and overrepresented, could field candidates in the party-list elections.

Lorenz James C. Luistro