Change The Panganiban Formula and The 2-4-6 Method
The current method for determining Party List seat allocation must be in line with the Supereme Court decision of the October 6, 2000 case of Veterans Federation Party, et al v. COMELEC (G.R. No. 136781). This method to be used, was emphasized in The Supreme Court’s most recent ruling, G.R. No. 172103, against Cibac. But the method that has always been adopted by The Comelec, which The Supreme Court has rebuked, is that of the 2-4-6 formula which allocates 1 seat per 2% gained by a party list during an election. Thus 6% would yield 3 seats, which is the maximum allowed.
In the current announcement by The Comelec, as written in the Inquirer, despite adopting the 2-4-6 method in the past, The Comelec will now adopt the “Panganiban Formula”. The article says the following,
the announcement of the Commission on Elections Monday that only the No. 1 group would get the coveted maximum three seats in the House of Representatives.
In accordance with the Comelec ruling, only the pro-life El Shaddai-associated Buhay, which is currently leading the party-list race, would be entitled to three seats.
The militant group Bayan Muna will likely get two seats, down from its three seats in the 13th Congress.
Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. said the poll body would use the so-called “Panganiban formula†instead of the commission’s “2-4-6 formula†in determining the number of seats each winning party-list organization would have in the incoming 14th Congress. “It’s only the No. 1 group that will get three seats under the (Panganiban) formula,†Abalos said at a press conference after the Comelec, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBC), adjourned for the day.
But, as written by Felix P. Muga II, The Veterans Formula, or what is called the Panganiban Formula, is insufficient and will not yield the 20% allocation of seats that The Party Lists is entitled to.
From the article written,
The 1987 Philippine Constitution mandates that 20% of the total number of members of the House of Representatives must come from the party-list. This means that out 5 representatives, 1 comes from the party- list and 4 from the congressional districts. Hence, the total number of party- list seats is 1/4 of the total number of congressiona l districts. Since there are 212 congressional districts in the 2004 election, there are 212/4 = 53 party- list seats.
If it is the Supreme Court’s duty to uphold the constitution, then clearly the 1987 constitution, mandating at least a 20% of the seats in The House of Representatives should go to the Party Lists, then they must adopt a formula that will fill all of those seats. To do otherwise, is to clearly not uphold the Constitution. Both the 2-4-6 method and the “Panganiban-Veterans Formula” fall short.
As was recommended by Felix P. Muga II, a better formulation, such as the Stakeholder-Based Allocation Method, should be implemented, thus all seats that are owed to the party lists will be accommodated, and the constitution upheld.
Thus four courses of action may occur,
- Amend the current constitution to reflect the current practice,
- Set up a formula to adhere to the 1987 constitution,
- Ignore the 1987 constitution altogether and uphold the decision of the Supreme Court to implement the “Panganiban Formula”
- Stick with the 2-4-6 method
It looks like, as of this writing, the third option is being adopted, and that is of the “Panganiban-Veterans Formula”. Is this even constitutional, since for a long time, the party list seat allocation has never been 20% of the total House of Representatives.
(Update: 3:11pm) If the Panganiban Formula is used, and if current trends stay the same with the Comelec count, Bayan Muna’s votes (925,042) divided by Buhay’s votes (1,112,486) yields a quotient of 0.83. Multiplying the two additional seats for Buhay, Bayan Muna gets a product of 1.66. In the formula, only the whole number is used, thus Bayan Muna will get only 1 extra seat, for a total of 2 seats instead of 3.
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