PM Coalition hopeful of SC nod as election season officially starts

PRESS RELEASE

Partido ng Manggagawa Coalition

13 January 2013

The partylist group Partido ng Manggagawa Coalition or PM Coalition is hoping to get the Supreme Court’s nod as election season officially starts this week.  The group has sought the High Court’s intervention after it was inadvertently disqualified by the Commission on Elections based on mere technicality.

Acting on the group’s petition, the Supreme Court last week has ordered the Comelec to submit its comment within a non-extendable five days.

“Compared with other groups whose status as ‘marginalized’ are being questioned, our case is simpler to resolve since it simply involves technicality,” argued PM Coalition Chair Ambrocio Palad. 

The Comelec's Second Division dismissed PM Coalition’s Petition on the ground that it failed to comply with the requirements for registration as a “sectoral coalition.” The decision states:

"A careful perusal of the petition clearly shows that PM Coalition fell short of the requirement to be accredited as a sectoral coalition. While petitioner has extensively submitted documentary evidence to support its petition, it failed to consider a material requisite to seek registration as a coalition, that is, that its member organizations should be duly registered parties with this Commission."

Palad said the poll body took no serious effort in considering the group’s motion for reconsideration which clarified the matter.   

He explained that even under Comelec Resolution No. 9366 – Rules on filing of petitions for registration – requirements under Section 6. Petition for Registration, Contents states that petitioner is only required to submit names, addresses, and representatives of sectoral parties or organizations affiliated with the petitioner, which affiliates need not be registered with the Commission, but have given their consent thereto.

Palad said his group has complied with all those requirements for registration and has filed timely motions to appeal its dismissal by the Comelec’s Second Division.

The group also wondered why it was disqualified by the poll body when in 2010 and even for the 2013, it allowed several groups bearing the names coalition.   They include1-United Transport Coalition (1-UTAK); Bagong Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Samahan sa Sektor ng Transportasyon (Bangon Tran); Koalisyon ng Katutubong Samahan sa Pilipinas (KASAPI); Alliance of Regional Coalitions Against People’s Poverty, Inc.; Ang National Coalition on Indigenous People’s Action (ANG NCIP); Coalition of Associations of Senior Citizens in the Philippines, Inc. (SENIOR CITIZEN); Parent’s Enabling Parents Coalition  (PEP); and Piston Transport Coalition (PISTON).

Meanwhile, Partido ng Manggagawa chair and PM Coalition nominee Renato Magtubo expressed doubt on the capacity of the poll body to demobilize private armed groups to ensure a fairer and peaceful 2013 elections.

“Warlords, drug lords and gambling lords who maintain powerful private armed groups cannot be neutralized by half-serious periodic campaign. The campaign must be at all-time bold and thoroughgoing and must also be accompanied by major political reforms that ensure a leveled battle field between the rich and the poor,” said Magtubo.