SUBJECT TOPIC DIGEST MAKER
Constitutional Law Art. Vi, Sec. 5 Jennika Chua
DAYAO V COMELEC
Ponente: Justice Reyes
Docket Number: G.R. No. 193643
Date Promulgated: January 29, 2013
Petitioner: Antonio Dayao, et al.
Respondents: Comission on Elections and LPG Marketers’ Association
Main Topic: Par. 2 Party-List Representation – Members not belonging to
marginalized and underrepresented sector
EMERGENCY DIGEST: LPGMA, an association of consumers and players
in the LPG industry, sought party-list accreditation with the COMELEC to
participate in the 2010 elections under the Party-List System Act. Four months
after the COMELEC approved said accreditation, Dayao, et al filed a
complaint with the COMELEC for the cancellation of LPGMA’s registration
as a party-list organization. They. alleged that LPGMA does not represent a
marginalized sector of society because its incorporators, officers and members
are not marginalized or underrepresented citizens. In response, LPGMA
countered that Sec. 5(2), Art. VI of the 1987 Constitution does not require
that party-list representatives must be members of marginalized or
underrepresented sectors of society.
The Court ruled that in the case of Bagong Bayani vs. COMELEC, pursuant to
Sec. 6 (5) of RA No. 7941, the party-list system seeks to enable marginalized
and underrepresented Filipinos to become members of the House of
Representative. As such, a party that does not comply with said policy must be
disqualified. The COMELEC committed grave abuse of discretion when it
dismissed the complaint. However, the issue regarding the complaint can be
deemed to have already been settled. COMELEC issued Resolution 9513 that
directed all party-list groups to assess their continuing compliance with
requirements and guideline in Bagong Bayani. COMELEC has declared that
LPGMA met the qualifications imposed by the law on party-list groups. As
such, the Court finds it tedious to remand the complaint to the COMELEC to
determine the state of LPGMA’s qualifications. Hence, petitions are
dismissed.
NOTE: The LPGMA won in the May 10, 2010 elections, the 18th nationwide.
This is the clearest affirmation of its qualification.
COMPREHENSIVE DIGEST
FACTS: LPG Marketers Association, Inc. (LPGMA), is a non-stock, non-
profit association of consumers and small industry players in the LPG. The
group advocates access to reasonably priced LPG by household consumers.
On May 21, 2009, LPGMA sought a party-list accreditation with the
COMELEC through a petition for registration as a sectoral organization in
order to participate in May 10, 2010 elections under the Party-List System
Act (R.A. No. 7941). The group claimed that it has special interest in the LPG
industry, and that one of its programs is the promotion of fair trade practices,
among others, for the development and well-being of small LPG enterprises.
After the requisite of publication, verification and hearing, and without any
opposition, COMELEC approved LPGMA’s petition. However, after 4
months, Dayao, et al lodged, before the COMELEC, a complaint for the
cancellation of LPGMA’s registration as a party-list organization. They
alleged that LPGMA does not represent a marginalized sector of the
society because its incorporators, officers and members are not marginalized
or underrepresented citizens since such are actually marketers and independent
re-sellers of LPG that control 45% of the national LPG retail market, and have
significant ownership interests in various LPG refilling plants.
In response, LPGMA countered that Section 5 (2), Article VI of the 1987
Constitution does not require that party-list representatives must be
members of the marginalized and/or underrepresented sector of the
society.
The COMELEC dismissed the complaint since (1) the ground for
cancellation that petitioners cited was not among the exclusive
enumeration in Sec. 6 of the Party-List System Act, and (2) the complaint is
a belated opposition to LPGMA’s petition for registration which has long been
approved with finality.
ISSUE: Whether or not LPGMA MAY BE disqualified on the ground that its
officers and members do not belong to the marginalized and underrepresented
sector?
HELD: YES. The Court ruled that the allegation in the complaint for
cancellation, that the incorporators, officers and members of LPGMA do not
belong to the marginalized or underrepresented sector, is within the ambit of
Sec. 6 (5) of the Party-List System Act.
It is the COMELEC’s role to ensure the realization of the intent of the
Constitution to give genuine power to those who have less in life by enabling
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them to become veritable lawmakers themselves, by seeing to it that only
those Filipinos who are marginalized and underrepresented become members
of Congress under the party list system. To effectively discharge this role,
R.A. No. 7941 grants the COMELEC the power not only to register party-list
groups but also to review and cancel their registration.
In Ang Bagong Bayani-OFW Labor Party v. COMELEC, the Court
explained that the "laws, rules or regulations relating to elections" referred to
in Sec. 2 (5) of the Party-List System Act, which declares the underlying
policy for the law that marginalized and underrepresented Filipino
citizens become members of the House of Representatives to which a
party or an organization that does not comply with said policy must be
disqualified. The party-list system of representation was crafted for the
marginalized and underrepresented, and their alleviation is the ultimate policy
of the law.
When COMELEC directed all existing and registered party-list groups,
including LPGMA, to assess their continuing compliance with the
requirements of the Party-List System Act, and the guidelines set in Ang
Bagong Bayani, LPGMA was in the list of party-list groups who complied.
Evidently, the COMELEC has already determined and declared that, at
present, LPGMA met the qualifications imposed by law on party-list groups.
Hence, the Court found that It will be a needless to still remand the complaint
to the COMELEC for it to determine the present state of LPGMA's
qualifications.
Wherefore, the consolidated petitions are DIMISSED.
EXPLANATION:
The Court ruled that the petition should be dismissed. While the enumeration
of marginalized and underrepresented sectors is not exclusive, it demonstrates
the clear intent of the law that not all sectors can be represented under the
party-list system. Although COMELEC was found to have committed grave
abuse of discretion and that LPGMA may be disqualified based on Sec 5 of
the Party-List System Act (it does not represent a marginalized and
underrepresented sector), COMELEC found and declared that LPGMA was
qualified in its resolution (COMELEC’s role is to see to it only marginalized
and underrepresented become member of Congress).
Since LPGMA won the 2010 elections, 18th out of all the party-lists, it is more
than enough to prove that it was qualified. The Court found that since
COMELEC has already settled and retained in another resolution in 2012
that LPGMA was in the list of accredited party-list organizations, there
was no need to remand the same to make a decision regarding said
qualification. END.
(Read concurring to understand better)
CONCURRING OPINION: JUSTICE VELASCO JR.
Petitioners anchor their challenge against the accreditation of LPGMA on the
first guideline set forth in Ang Bagong Bayani-OFW Labor Party v.
COMELEC, that the organization represents the marginalized and
underrepresented sector of society.
They allege that: (1) LPGMA, is composed of refillers, marketers, and
dealers of LPG; and (2) its nominees themselves are part of big
businesses.
COMELEC has already passed upon the question of whether or not LPGMA
represents a marginalized/underrepresented sector during the proceedings
relative to its petition for registration.
In its January 5, 2010 Resolution granting LPGMA's petition for
registration, the COMELEC peremptorily found and so declared LPGMA as
representing a marginalized and underrepresented sector. The ruling that
the organization is so qualified at the time of its registration should be
considered final and conclusive at some point in time.
The COMELEC cannot, at every turn, be asked to evaluate anew a party-list’s
eligibility to participate in the elections passed upon in an appropriate
registration proceeding. It behooves the Court to prevent this repetitive and
unnecessary endeavor. Hence, the dismissal of the instant petitions is legal as
it is practical.
CONCURRING OPINION: JUSTICE ABAD
LPGMA, as an applicant in the original petition for registration, carried the
burden of proving the affirmative of its claim that it was entitled to
registration as a party-list organization since it represented a
marginalized and underrepresented sector. Thus, although petitioners did
not intervene to oppose LPGMA's application for registration, the COMELEC
heard the issue, which the law itself tendered, regarding the marginalized and
underrepresented status of LPGMA's members.
The COMELEC received evidence on that issue and resolved the same with a
ruling that LPGMA met the requirement. And, when no one appealed from
that ruling, the same became final and executory.
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Petitioners simply wanted the COMELEC to retry an issue it had already cancellation of registration of LPGMA, the same can no longer be disturbed
adjudicated based on evidence, require LPGMA to once again prove its by this Commission. To warrant a cancellation of LPGMA's registration, there
qualifications, and allow petitioners to present evidence which, ironically, should be a strong showing that there has been a change in the relevant factual
were already available to them at the time the original registration was being matters surrounding the Petition
heard.
NOTES:
OTHER ISSUES/RATIONALE:
WHO ARE MARGINZALIZED AND UNDERREPRESENTD?
W/N Petitioners are barred from questioning LPGMA’s qualifications
SEC. 5 (2), ART. VI Constitution: w/o a petition for registration before filing a complaint for cancellation?
The party-list representatives shall constitute twenty per centum of the total NO. The COMELEC's conclusion that the complaint for cancellation, led four
number of Representatives including those under the party-list. For three (4) months after the petition was approved, is actually a belated opposition,
consecutive terms after the ratification of this Constitution, one-half of the obliterates the distinction between the power to register/refuse and the power
seats allocated to party-list representatives shall be filled, as provided by law, to cancel. It is wrong to impose it as a condition for the exercise of the
by selection or election from the labor, peasant, urban poor, indigenous COMELEC's entirely separate power to cancel. As such, the absence of an
cultural communities, women, youth, and such other sectors as may be opposition to a petition for registration cannot serve to bar any interested party
provided by law, except the religious sector. from questioning, through a complaint for cancellation, the qualifications of a
party-list group.
R.A. No. 7941, Sec. 2. Declaration of Policy
W/N the accreditation of LPGMA can never attain perpetual
The State shall promote proportional representation in the election of
conclusiveness against the COMELEC?
representatives to the House of Representatives through a party-list system of
registered national, regional and sectoral parties or organizations or coalitions YES. There is no arguing that the COMELEC Resolution dated January 5,
thereof, which will enable Filipino citizens belonging to the marginalized 2010 granting LPGMA's registration has since become final. Such finality,
and underrepresented sectors, organizations and parties, and who lack however, pertains only to the Resolution itself and not to the accreditation of
well-defined political constituencies but who could contribute to the LPGMA as a party-list organization. Said Resolution did nothing more but to
formulation and enactment of appropriate legislation that will benefit the vest with LPGMA the right to participate in the party-list elections.
nation as a whole, to become members of the House of Representatives.
In ruling that the finality of its Resolution dated January 5, 2010 stretched to
Towards this end, the State shall develop and guarantee a full, free and open
the accreditation of LPGMA, the COMELEC practically enfeebled and denied
party system in order to attain the broadest possible representation of party,
its own power to cancel what it is exclusively empowered to grant.
sectoral or group interests in the House of Representatives by enhancing their
chances to compete.
COMELEC RESOLUTION
The [petitioners] must be reminded that the matter has already been ruled
upon. In the Resolution promulgated on January 5, 2010 .., this Commission
has resolved to grant the Petition for Registration of LPGMA as a sectoral
organization under the party-list system of representation. After a thorough
evaluation of the Petition, the Commission (First Division) has concluded that
LPGMA truly represents a marginalized and underrepresented sector. With
respect to the said conclusion, absent any circumstance subsequent to the
promulgation of the mentioned Resolution which would call for the