Case: Banat vs Comelec G.R. No.

179271 , April 21, 2009 Facts: On the 27th of June 2002, BANAT (BARANGAY ASSOCIATION FOR NATIONAL ADVANCEMENT AND TRANSPARENCY) filed a petition to proclaim the Full Number of Party-List Representatives provided by the Constitution, docketed as NBS no. 07-041 (PL) before the NBC. BANAT filed its petition because the Chairman and the members of the COMELEC have recently been quoted in the national papers that the COMELEC is duty bound to and shall implement the Veterans ruling, that is, would apply the Panganiban formula in allocating party-list seats. There were no intervenors in BANATs petition before the NBC. BANAT filed a memorandum on July 19, 2007. On July 9, 2007, the COMELEC, sitting as the NBC, promulgated NBC Resolution No. 0760. NBC Resolution No. 07-60 proclaimed 13 parties as winners in the party-list elections. Pursuant to NBC Resolution No. 07-60, the COMELEC acting as NBC, stated that in NBC Resolution No. 07-72, which declared that additional seats allocated to the appropriate parties. Thereafter, acting on BANATs petition, the NBC promulgated in resolution No. 07-88 declaring BANATs petition as moot and academic. Meanwhile on July 9, 2007, Bayan Muna, Abono and A teacher asked the COMELEC as acting NBC to reconsider its decision to use the Veterans formula as stated in NBC Resolution No. 07-60 because the formula is violative of the constitution and RA 7941. On the same day, the COMELEC denied reconsideration during the proceedings of the NBC. Issues: 1. W/N the twenty percent allocation for party-list representatives in section 5 (2), article VI of the Constitution mandatory or merely a ceiling. 2. W/N the two percent threshold prescribed in section 11 (b) of RA 7941 constitutional. 3. how shall the party-list representatives seats allocated? 4. W/N the constitution prohibits the major political parties from participating in the party-list elections. If not, can the major political parties be barred from participating in the party-list elections? Holding: 1. No. Section 5(1), Article VI of the constitution provides that the house of representatives shall be composed of not more than two hundred and fifty members, unless otherwise fixed by law. The House of Representatives shall be composed of district representatives and party-list representatives. The Constitution allows the legislature to modify the number of the members of the House of Representatives. On the other hand, the article also provides ratio of party-list representatives to the total number of representatives. We compute the number of seats available to the party-list

representatives from the number of legislative districts. On this point, we do not deviate from the first formula in Veterans, thus:

Number of seats available to legislative district

X 0.20 (Number of Seats available to party-list reps)

----------------------------------0.80

This formula allows for the corresponding increase in the number of seats available for party list representatives whenever a legislative district is created by law. After prescribing the ratio of the number of party-list representatives to the local number of representatives, the Constitution left the manner of allocating the seats available to party-list representatives to the wisdom of the legislature. 2. Yes. But only insofar as allocation as additional seats is concerned. The two percent threshold makes it mathematically impossible to achieve the maximum number of available party list seats when the number of available party list seats exceeds 50. The continued operation of the two percent threshold in the distribution of the additional seats frustrates the attainment of the permissive ceiling that 20% of the members of the House of Representatives shall consist of party list representatives. 3. In determining the allocation of seats for party list representatives under section 11 of RA7941,the following procedure shall be observed: a. The parties, organizations and coalitions shall be ranked from the highest to the lowest based on the number of votes they garnered during the elections; b. The parties, organizations, and coalitions receiving at least two percent of the total votes cast for the party list system shall be entitled to one guaranteed seat each; c. Those garnering sufficient number of votes, according to the ranking in paragraph 1 shall be entitled to additional seats is proportion to their total number of votes until all the additional seats are allocated; d. Each party, organization, or coalition shall be entitled to not more than three seats. In computing the additional seats, the guaranteed seats shall no longer be included because they have already been allocated, at one seat each, to every two percent. Thus, the remaining available seats for allocation as additional seats are the maximum seats reserved under the Party list System less the guaranteed seats. Fractional seats are disregarded in the absence of a provision in RA 9741 allowing for a rounding off of fractional seats

4. No. Neither the Constitution nor RA 7941 prohibits major political parties from participating in the party list system. On the contrary, framers of the constitution clearly intended the major political parties to participate in party list elections through their sectoral wings. In defining a party that participates in the party list elections as either a political party or a sectoral party. RA 7941 and the deliberations of the constitutional commission state that major political parties are allowed to establish or form coalitions with sectoral organizations for political purposes.