Migrante Loses Appeal, Vows to Elevate Comelec’s Delisting to Supreme Court

Published on November 19, 2009

By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat.com

The Commission on Elections has reaffirmed its decision delisting the Migrante Sectoral Party (MSP) as a party-list group. But Migrante says it will not surrender, promising to take the case to the Supreme Court.

“We are not at all deterred,” MSP chairperson Connie Bragas-Regalado said. “We are determined to challenge before the Supreme Court this latest affront to our OFWs’ collective desire to finally have a say in government.”

MSP failed to garner at least two percent of party-list votes, which was needed to win one seat, in the 2004 elections. In 2007, the party decided not to run and informed the poll body that they planned to consolidate and strengthen their grassroots members for the 2010 elections.

In the recent Comelec en banc resolution dated November 17, the poll body upheld its earlier decision that since the MSP did not join the elections in 2007, it automatically meant that they lost in two preceding elections, thereby justifying its delisting.

With this decision, the MSP said, the ruling regime, through the Comelec, only proved that they have finally “hammered the last nail in the coffin, finally denying overseas Filipinos and their families their dream of having a representative in government that would genuinely fight for their interests.”

John Monterona, Migrante Middle East coordinator and one of the nominees of MSP, said the delisting of Migrante is proof that a supposedly independent electoral body is greatly influenced by the Arroyo regime, which is continuously persecuting progressive organizations like Migrante.

In response, the MSP would hold “12 Days of Protests” starting November 20. They would also file for a temporary restraining order before the Supreme Court.

“We can only hope that our magistrates in the High Court would rule in favor of reason and not affirm the Comelec’s preposterous and nonsensical ruling,” Regalado said. (Bulatlat.com)