Case Digest: Ang Bagong Bayani vs. Comelec

G.R. No. 147589            June 26, 2001

ANG BAGONG BAYANI vs. Comelec

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G.R. No. 147613 June 26, 2001

BAYAN MUNA vs. Comelec

Facts

Petitioners challenged the Comelec’s Omnibus Resolution No. 3785^, which approved the participation of 154 organizations and parties, including those herein impleaded, in the 2001 party-list elections. Petitioners sought the disqualification of private respondents, arguing mainly that the party-list system was intended to benefit the marginalized and underrepresented; not the mainstream political parties, the non-marginalized or overrepresented. Unsatisfied with the pace by which Comelec acted on their petition, petitioners elevated the issue to the Supreme Court. 

Issue:

       1.     Whether or not petitioner’s recourse to the Court was proper.

       2.     Whether or not political parties may participate in the  party list elections.

       3.     Whether or not the Comelec committed grave abuse of discretion in promulgating Omnibus Resolution No. 3785.

RULING:  

1.            The Court may take cognizance of an issue notwithstanding the availability of other remedies "where the issue raised is one purely of law, where public interest is involved, and in case of urgency." The facts attendant to the case rendered it justiciable.

2.         Political Parties -- even the major ones -- may participate in the party-list elections subject to the requirements laid down in the Constitution and RA 7941, which is the statutory law pertinent to the Party List System.

              Under the Constitution and RA 7941, private respondents cannot be disqualified from the party-list elections, merely on the ground that they are political parties. Section 5, Article VI of the Constitution provides that members of the House of Representative may “be elected through a party-list system of registered national, regional, and sectoral parties or organizations”. It is however, incumbent upon the COMELEC to determine proportional representation of the marginalized and underrepresented”, the criteria for participation in relation to the cause of the party lsit applicants so as to avoid desecration of the noble purpose of the party-list system.

3.             The Court acknowledged that to determine the propriety of the inclusion of respondents in the Omnibus Resolution No. 3785, a study of the factual allegations was necessary which was beyond the pale of the Court. The Court not being a trier of facts.

             However, seeing that the Comelec failed to appreciate fully the clear policy of the law and the Consitution, the Court decided to set some guidelines culled from the law and the Consitution, to assist the Comelec in its work. The Court ordered that the petition be remanded in the Comelec to determine compliance by the party lists.

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