Supreme Court (Facebook photo)
MANILA – The Supreme Court (SC) bared on Friday that it has issued temporary restraining orders (TROs) against the Commission on Elections' (Comelec) decision to deny the registration of two party-list groups.
Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo issued the TROs in the petitions filed by the Alliance for Resilience, Sustainability and Empowerment (ARISE), represented by its president, Arze Glipo, and Igorot Warriors International Inc. (IWI), represented by its chairperson, Jerson Bantag, on Thursday.
The SC ordered Comelec to comment on the petitions within a non-extendible period of 10 days and in the meantime, honor the restraining order by not enforcing its registration dismissal orders.
The Comelec dismissed the petitions for registration of IWI on September 22 and ARISE on August 11.
Their motions for reconsideration were turned down on December 1, prompting them to take their cases to the SC.
The party-list system is an innovation of the Constitution seeking to allow underrepresented and marginalized sectors of society to gain a presence in the House of Representatives after obtaining a minimum threshold of votes nationwide.
On November 17, Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said the Comelec rejected 126 groups bidding to register as party-lists for the 2022 elections.
During the filing period from October 1 to 8, a total of 270 party-list groups filed their Certificates of Nomination and Acceptance and on October 25, Comelec announced 53 new groups that were granted registration.
On Tuesday, the Kalipunan ng Maralita at Malayang Mamamayan, Inc. (Kamalayan) secured the top spot on the ballot for 166 party-list groups.
In case of additional groups, they will be placed after the 166th group, Buhay Hayaan Yumabong (BUHAY). (PNA)
