You are on page 1of 14

ATONG PAGLAUM

v.
COMELEC
G.R.No. 203766
April 2, 2013
En Banc
Garin, D.
M.

Section 5, Article 6 of the Philippine


Constitution. Relevantly, Section 5
provides
that
the
House
of
Representatives shall be composed of
members who, among others, shall
be elected through a party-list system
of registered national, regional, and
sectoral parties or organizations

Facts:

280 groups manifested their desire to


participate in party-list elections in 2013
National Elections
Atong Paglaum, Inc. and 53 other parties
were disqualified by the Commission on
Elections for not being qualified as
representatives for marginalized or
underrepresented sectors.
Atong Paglaum et al then filed a petition
for certiorari against COMELEC alleging

Issue:
Whether or not the COMELEC committed
grave abuse of discretion in disqualifying
the said party-lists
Whether the criteria for participating in the
party-list system laid down in BANAT v.
COMELEC should be applied

Held:
First:
No.
The COMELEC merely followed the
guidelines set in the ofBANAT

Second:
No.
Since the Supreme Court remanded
the cases back to the COMELEC as
the Supreme Court now provides for
new guidelines which abandoned
some principles established in the
two aforestated cases

In qualifying party-lists, the COMELEC


must use the following parameters:

1. Three different groups may


participate in the party-list system:
(a)national parties or
organizations,
(b)regional
parties or organizations, and
(c)sectoral parties or
organizations.

2.
National
parties
or
organizations and regional parties
or organizations do not need to
organize along sectoral lines and
do not need to represent any
marginalized
and
underrepresented sector.

3. Political parties can participate


in party-list elections provided:
(a) they register under the
party- list system
(b) and do not field candidates
in legislative district elections.

(i) A political party, whether major


or not, that fields candidates in
legislative district elections can
participate in party-list elections only
through its sectoral wing that
can separately register under the
party-list system.
(ii) The sectoral wing is by itself an
independent sectoral party, and is
linked to a political party through a
coalition.

4. Sectoral parties or
organizations may either be:
(a) marginalized and
underrepresented
(b) lacking in well-defined
political constituencies.

5.
The nominees of sectoral parties or
organizations:
must have a track record of advocacy f
or their respective sectors.
bona-fide members of such parties or
organizations.
Majority of the members of sectoral
party, of either type, must belong to the
sector they represent

6. National, regional, and


sectoral
parties
or
organizations shall not be
disqualified if some of their
nominees are disqualified,
provided that they have at
least one nominee who
remains qualified

CRITIQUE
Equating minor political parties to major political
parties would be detrimental to the former, since
it has lesser fund and machineries as compared
with the latter
Accommodating all kinds of organizations would
be chaotic to democratic institutions
Political instability due to fragile coalitions

You might also like