The top ranked partylist organization in the recently held elections will get the maximum three seats in the House of Representatives (HOR), a Commission on Elections (Comelec) official disclosed Tuesday, May 17.
“Whoever will get the number one seat or the number one rank will have automatically the three seats. Whether they will get eight percent, 10 percent whatever, they will only get the maximum three seats,“ said Comelec Commissioner George Erwin Garcia in a press briefing.
"That is why even if a partylist obtains 7.5 percent of the total votes cast but it is only ranked number two, that partylist will be entitled only to two seats. It may be equivalent four percent only but just the same, it's only entitled to two seats. There's only one partylist organization that is entitled to three seats and that is the first in rank partylist organization," he added.
The Anti-Crime and Terrorism Community Involvement and Support Partylist (ACT-CIS) continues to lead the partylist race based on the latest canvass report released by the Comelec en banc.
Based on Canvass Report No. 6 released by the Comelec Tuesday, ACT-CIS obtained 2,103,127 votes out of the 159 certificates of canvass (COCs) that were counted by the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC). ACT-CIS’s votes represented 5.7997 percent of the total 55,408,244 votes that were canvassed by the NBOC. The canvass report covered the NBOC's canvassing as of Monday morning.
But ACT-CIS’ votes are expected to further increase as the Comelec already finished canvassing 172 out of 173 COCs as of Monday night. The results of the latest canvassing are yet to be released as of this writing.
Comelec acting spokesperson Director John Rex Laudiangco also said that six partylist groups with at least a guaranteed seat after securing two percent of the total votes cast will be proclaimed on Thursday afternoon, May 19.
Aside from ACT-CIS, the five other partylist groups which secured at least two percent of the total votes cast are 1-Rider Partylist with 999,655 votes (2.7567 percent); Tingog with 884,709 votes (2.4397 percent), 4PS with 834,367 votes (2.3009 percent), Ako Bicol with 815,892 votes (2.2500 percent), and Sagip with 774,103 votes (2.1347 percent).
Under the Republic Act No. 7941 or the Party-List System Act, a partylist which secured at least two percent of the total votes cast is entitled to at least one seat in the HOR.
Further, the partylist group that exceeded the two percent threshold is entitled to an additional seat, provided that it will not exceed the maximum three seats.
For partylist groups that did not meet the threshold, they can still secure a seat once the Comelec distributes the remaining seats based on the order of percentage of votes.
Under the law, up to 63 seats are allocated for partylist groups in the Lower House.
JUST IN: Comelec releases partial and official results for partylist elections. ACT-CIS remains on top of the race with 2,103,127 votes, followed by: 1-Rider Partylist - 999,655
Tingog - 884,709
4PS - 834,367
Ako Bicol - 815,892 | @MB_mrtnsdngdng pic.twitter.com/Qw2p2xSVea
— Manila Bulletin News (@manilabulletin) May 17, 2022