THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) will proclaim Gabriela party-list this week as the winner in last May’s elections, giving it the 64th and last party-list seat in the House of Representatives.
Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia said Sunday that Gabriela will be proclaimed on Wednesday during the commission’s regular en banc session.
Garcia said the post will be occupied by Gabriela’s first nominee, Sarah Elago.
In a statement on Sunday, Elago thanked “all who believe and for the relentless call of women, LGBTQIA+, youth, and various supporters for Gabriela Women’s Party to be proclaimed as a genuine, courageous, and patriotic representative of women in Congress.”
She vowed to bring to Congress “the call of women for a living wage, job and livelihood security, reducing the price of rice, oil and utilities, affordable education and health, genuine land and fishery reform, and fighting all forms of violence and discrimination.”
Garcia said the proclamation is in compliance with Republic Act 7941, which mandates that party-list representatives should comprise 20 percent of the House membership.
He said Comelec made the decision after acknowledging that the present 63 seats allocated for party-list groups do not comply with the requirements of the Constitution and RA 7941 that party-list representatives will make up 20 percent of the House membership representatives.
The House has 254 seats for representatives from the electoral districts and 63 seats for party-lists.
Garcia said the 63 seats represent only a little over 19 percent of the chamber’s membership, and adding one more seat makes it 20.1 or 20.2 percent.
Gabriela got 256,811 votes or 0.61 percent of the total votes cast for 155 party-list groups.
It first won a seat in the 2014 elections, two seats in the 2017, 2010, 2013, and 2016 polls, and a seat each in 2019 and 2022.
Garcia said he has informed the House secretary general about the Comelec’s move to proclaim one more party-list group.
“The secretary-general said it is the absolute discretion of the Comelec to proclaim, while it is the ministerial duty of the House of Representatives to receive all certificates of proclamation coming from the Comelec,” he said.
Three party-list seats are still at stake after the Comelec canceled the registration of Duterte Youth, which is entitled to three seats after it garnered the second-highest number of votes at 2,338,564 or 5.57 percent.
The disqualification case against Duterte Youth was filed in 2019 by youth leaders Reeya Magtalas, Abigail Tan, Raainah Punzalan, and Aunell Ross Angcos.
The petitioners claimed that Duterte Youth is not a legitimate representation of the youth and failed to comply with the publication requirements of its registration.
Duterte Youth has questioned the disqualification ruling before the Supreme Court.
In a related development, Garcia also said the Comelec targets to register at least 3 million overseas voters for the 2028 elections.
He described the 2028 polls as “crucial in our political history because we are electing the president and vice president and other positions.”
Garcia said he hopes to get 2 million new voters when the overseas voter registration resumes on Dec. 1.
The overseas voter registration period will run until Sept. 30, 2027.
The last overseas registration was held from Dec. 9, 2022, to Sept. 30, 2024, where some 200,000 registered.
A total of 1.241 million overseas Filipinos registered for the May 12 elections.
WITH REINA C. TOLENTINO AND PHILIPPINE NEWS AGENCY
