Garcia: Comelec may proclaim Gabriela as winning party-list on Wednesday

Commission on Elections. Inquirer file photo.

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) may officially proclaim Gabriela Women’s Party on Wednesday as the winning party-list of the 2025 midterm elections, with Sarah Elago as the first nominee.

Comelec Chairperson George Erwin Garcia shared this development a day after he announced that the Gabriela Women’s Party will get the 64th party-list seat in the House of Representatives.

“Earlier, I signed the Certificate of Proclamation and this is currently being passed around with the members of the commission so hopefully by Wednesday, we can release that and we can officially give the Certificate of Proclamation to Gabriela Party-list and to former Congresswoman [Sarah] Elago,” Garcia said in an interview with reporters.

READ: Gabriela to get 64th party-list seat in House, says Comelec

Garcia on Sunday said that the party-list’s proclamation is in compliance with the Comelec resolution which increased the number of party-list seats in the House of Representatives from 63 to 64. Garcia said he wrote to the en banc, stressing that the allocation in the lower chamber must be 64 in line with the 1987 Constitution.

He explained that allotting only 63 seats, which is less than 20% of the party-list seats in the lower chamber, could violate the Constitution. Republic Act 7941 or the Party-list System Act mandates that party-list representatives should comprise 20% of all House members.

When asked if there will be a formal ceremony of the proclamation, Garcia cited an example where the poll body held no formalities and just distributed the Certificate of Proclamation to the BH Party-list, whose proclamation was suspended due to pending cases before the poll body.

“Let’s see on Wednesday if we can hold a ceremony, even just for a while, so we can officially read the proclamation,” Garcia added.

READ: Gabriela seeks proclamation after cancellation of Duterte Youth

Meanwhile, Garcia reiterated that Gabriela Women’s Party’s proclamation was not due to the cancelation of the registration of the Duterte Youth Party-list from the en banc level.

He added that if the decision to cancel the registration becomes final and executory, the poll body may proclaim three additional seats, from the seats that may be vacated by Duterte Youth.

On the other hand, while Elago welcomed the “good news,” she called on the immediate proclamation of her party-list, citing the need to participate in the lower chamber.

“We are calling for the proclamation of the Gabriela Women’s Party, because it was just a pronouncement, and there was no official proclamation. This is for us to participate in the critical period in the Congress where budget deliberations have started and for us to join in hearings against corruption,” Elago said in a separate interview.

She also stated that the budget for flood control projects and other corruption-prone initiatives should be realigned to prioritize social services, education, and healthcare. /mr