Gabriela gets 64th House seat for party list groups

PROCLAIMED, FINALLY Gabriela Women’s first nominee, Sarah Elago, celebrates with supporters after her “long-overdue” proclamation by the Commission on Elections as the party list group’s House representative. — Photo from Sarah Elago’s Facebook page.

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday officially proclaimed Gabriela Women’s Party as one of the winning party list groups in the May midterm elections.

In a statement on Tuesday, Gabriela’s first nominee, Sarah Elago, welcomed Comelec’s “long-overdue proclamation” of Gabriela Women’s Party, saying the group was ready to lobby for legislation for a livable wage, genuine agrarian reform and lower prices of basic goods.

She added that the party list would also work to advance long-sought measures like the SOGIE Equality Bill, Expanded Anti-Violence against Women and Children Bill, Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Bill, Presyo Ibaba Bill, wage hike bill, Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill, amendments to the Anti-Rape Law, Repeal Rice Liberalization Law, and the Anti-Political Dynasty Bill.

“Together, in Congress and in the streets, we must raise our voices and work together to end systemic violence, uplift the lives of the marginalized, and uphold the dignity of every Filipino,” said the former House lawmaker who represented the Kabataan party list for two terms.

Group’s agenda

“With the return of Gabriela Women’s Party to Congress, the corrupt and abusive will be held accountable. We will demand the services we have long been deprived of. Contractors and their politician-backers should also be held accountable for contracts that denuded our forests and made flooding worse for our people,” Elago said.

Gabriela ranked 55th in the party list race in the May elections, garnering a total of 256,811 votes. It is a member of the Makabayan bloc, which includes ACT Teachers’ and Kabataan.

Elago will get the 64th and last seat allocated for party lists in the House of Representatives in compliance with a Comelec resolution hiking the number of party list seats from 63 to 64.

20-percent allocation

Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia earlier said this was in compliance with Republic Act No. 7941, or the Party-list System Act. Under the law, 20 percent of House members must be party list representatives.

Three other seats, however, remain vacant after the Comelec en banc effectively canceled on Aug. 29 the registration of Duterte Youth, which came in second in the midterm elections.

READ: Duterte Youth appeals revoked registration before Supreme Court

Garcia, however, said they would await the decision of the Supreme Court, which received on Sept. 3 a petition from Duterte Youth questioning the Comelec resolution. Should the high court fail to issue a temporary restraining order against the poll body within 30 days, the cancellation of the party list group’s registration would become final and executory.