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Banat vs COMELEC

Facts:

Barangay Association for National Advancement and Transparency (BANAT)filed before the Commission on
Elections (COMELEC) a petition to proclaim thefull number of party list representatives provided by the
Constitution. However,
the recommendation of the head of the legal group of COMELECs national board of
canvassers to declare the petition moot and academic was approved by the COMELECen banc, and declared
further in a resolution that the winning party list will beresolved using the Veterans ruling. BANAT then filed a
petition before the SCassailing said resolution of the COMELEC.

Issues:
(1) Is the 20% allocation for party-list representatives provided in Sec 5(2), Art VI of the Constitution
mandatory or is it merely a ceiling?(2)
Is the 2% threshold and qualifier votes prescribed by the same Sec 11
(b) of RA 7941 constitutional?(3) Does the Constitution prohibit major political parties from participatingin the
party-list elections? If not, can major political parties participate inthe party-list elections?

Held:
(1) Neither the Constitution nor RA 7941 mandates the filling up of the entire20% allocation of party-list
representatives found in the Constitution. TheConstitution, in paragraph 1, Sec 5 of Art VI, left the
determination of thenumber of the members of the House of Representatives to Congress. The 20%allocation
of party-list representatives is merely a ceiling; party-listrepresentatives cannot be more then 20% of the
members of the House ofRepresentatives.
(2) No. We rule that, in computing the allocation of additional seats, thecontinued operation of the two percent
threshold for the distribution of theadditional seats as found in the second clause of Sec 11(b) of RA 7941
isunconstitutional. This Court finds that the two percent threshold makes itmathematically impossible to
achieve the maximum number of available party-listseats when the available party-list seat exceeds 50. The
continued operation ofthe two percent threshold in the distribution of the additional seats frustratesthe
attainment of the permissive ceiling that 20% of the members of the House ofRepresentatives shall consist of
party-list representatives.We therefore strikedown the two percent threshold only in relation to the distribution
of theadditional seats as found in the second clause of Sec 11 (b) of RA 7941. The twopercent threshold
presents an unwarranted obstacle to the full implementation ofSec 5 (2), Art VI of the Constitution and
prevents the
attainment of the
-broadest possible representation of party, sectoral or group interests in the
House of Representatives.
(3) No. Neither the Constitution nor RA 7941 prohibits major political partiesfrom participating in the party-list
system. On the contrary, the framers of theConstitution clearly intended the major political parties to
participate inparty-list elections through their sectoral wings. However, by vote of 8-7, theCourt decided to
continue the ruling in Veterans disallowing major politicalparties from participating in the party-list elections,
directly or indirectly.

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