DAVAO CITY – The Mindanaoan representative of Gabriela Women’s Partylist is still awaiting the decision from the Commission on Elections whether she will sit in as a representative on the 17th Congress.
This after only two seats were granted for GWP, but Representative Emmi De Jesus said they hope the Comelec will favourably decide on their petition.
“We stand pat on the grounds of our petition that Gabriela Women’s Party, in garnering over 1.36M votes in the May 9 elections, deserves not just two but three seats in Congress,” she said.
In computing for additional partylist seats that would comprise 20% of the total number of members of the House of Representatives, De Jesus said the COMELEC should have used 59.5 instead of the rounded off integer 59 as a base figure.
“Our third nominee, Bai Ali Indayla should immediately be proclaimed,” said De Jesus.
Indayla hails from Maguindanao province and also serves as the secretary general of the Kawagib Moro Human Rights Organization.
De Jesus said correcting a mathematical computation resulting to an error that violates the Constitution “should be no problem for the commissioners.”
De Jesus said there should be no need to elevate the petition to the Supreme Court as the questions raised by Gabriela on the proclamation of partylist groups constitute only an error in computation. (davaotoday.com)
