Migrante Sees Malacañang’s Hand in its Delisting, Says the Case Could Reach the Supreme Court

Published on November 7, 2009

Migrante Middle East regional coordinator John Monterona said delisting Migrante is a big blow to OFWs and their families who are clamoring for genuine sectoral representation in Congress. “We are seeing a big fight, before the courts or on the streets if necessary, in the homeland and around the world,” Monterona said.

Migrante International chairperson Garry Martinez said the Comelec is desperately trying to shorten the list of participating party-list groups in the 2010 elections. There are about 150 party-list groups that participated in the 2007 elections and more than 300 new party-list groups have filed their petition for registration last year.

“But it has no one to blame but itself. The Comelec is the sole agency that approved the registration of party-list groups, which could not be considered as representing marginalized sectors as defined in the constitution,” Martinez said, “Reducing the number of participating party-list groups should not be done at the expense of true and legitimate representatives of marginalized sectors.”

“Last elections, the Arroyo administration fielded at least nine ‘pseudo-party-list groups headed by First Gentleman Mike Arroyo’s sister Maria Lourdes Arroyo of Kasangga Party-list and Jovito Palparan of Bantay Party-list,” Regalado said.

Supreme Court

Matibag said they hope the Comelec would see the merits of Migrante’s arguments in its verified opposition. Should the Comelec, however, reject its opposition to the delisting, Matibag said, they would bring the matter to the Supreme Court.

“In that case, we are confident that the Supreme Court would grant our petition and abandon any doctrine that has been laid down by the Supreme Court’s minute resolution in the 2007 case of Minero vs. Comelec, a case similar to that of Migrante, and which simply made the conclusion that Comelec is correct in delisting Minero party-list but did not reasonably explain how it arrived at such conclusion,” Matibag said.

He added that the Supreme Court made a bold decision in abandoning the First Party Rule, which, according to Matibag, is a much bigger issue than allowing Migrante and five other party-list groups, which were delisted on the same grounds, to run during the 2010 elections. “They have done it once. And they can do it again if they are willing to do so. Besides, Comelec, in delisting Migrante, did not invoke the case of Minero vs. Comelec.”

Regalado of MSP said they hope to resolve the issue in one week to give Migrante enough time to avail of other remedies. “Should the Comelec reject its verified opposition and the case reaches the Supreme Court, we should receive the written notification from the Comelec by November 20 so that the temporary restraining order that we would be seeking would still be relevant.” (Bulatlat.com)

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