Party-list leaders have hailed the Commission on Elections’ announcement that it will now use the so-called “Banat formula” in assigning seats to accredited party-list groups.
Angkla party-list nominee lawyer Jess Manalo had earlier criticized the Comelec, and together with the SB party-list even petitioned the Supreme Court to stop the poll body from proclaiming party-list representatives based on its questionable system of seat allocation.
The poll body, Manalo said, had based its decision on the “repetitive use” of the 2-percent threshold of the total votes cast, which he said robs marginalized party-lists of their right of fair representation in Congress.
The Banat formula is based on the July 8, 2009 Supreme Court decision in the Barangay Association for National Assessment and Transparency (BANAT) case, where the High Court declared as unconstitutional the repeated use of the 2% threshold of the total votes.
The SC said the threshold should only apply in the first round of the party-list vote count.
Manalo lamented that despite the parameters earlier set and defined by the Supreme Court, the Comelec still allocated additional seats re-using the 2% already considered in the determination of the first guaranteed party-list seat.
Comelec spokesman James Jimenez announced last Tuesday the poll body will henceforth use the Banat formula in allocating seats to party-list groups.
Under the formula, all party-list groups that reached the prescribed 2% vote threshold are guaranteed one congressional seat.
Beyond the threshold, party-list groups will be ranked according to the votes they garnered from highest to lowest. The seats still available will be distributed to the party-list groups in the higher bracket based on the votes they got.
The maximum number of House seats a group can secure is three.
In the last elections, Manalo said, marginalized and under-represented groups “have been disenfranchised, cheated and robbed of much needed congressional representation” because the Comelec failed to apply the Banat formula, which is based on the last paragraph of Republic Act No. 7941 or the Party-List System Act.
