The Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced on Friday, June 2, that the Second Division has granted the petition to cancel the registration of An Waray Party-list after its failure to comply with laws, rules or regulations relating to elections. In a statement sent by Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiangco, this is in relation to Section 6(5) of Republic Act No. 7941. Citing the 16-page ruling of the Second Division, Comelec said that An Waray was found to have violated the laws and the rules for allowing its second nominee, Atty. Victoria Isabel Noel, to sit as Representative in the House of Representatives in the 16th Congress, knowing "fully well" that Comelc has not issued a Certificate of Proclamation entitling her to do so. "Without a Certificate of Proclamation for its second nominee, An Waray was entitled to one seat only in relation to the 2013 National and Local Elections, thus Atty. Noel's assumption to office as Representative of An Waray had no legal basis," the poll body added. According to Comelec, in the 2013 NLE, An Waray was proclaimed as one of the initial winners in the party-list race and was initially entitled to two seats. However, the initial allocation of two seats was subsequently recomputed to be one seat only, pursuant to National Board of Canvassers Resolution No. 13-030(PL)/004-14 promulgated on Aug 20, 2014. Further, NBOC Resolution No. 0008-13, promulgated on May 28, 2013, which An Waray solely relied on as the basis for allowing its second nominee to take her oath and assume office as Representative in the HoR, expressly stated that the seats initially allocated is "without prejudice to the proclamation of other parties, organizations or coalitions which may later on be established to be entitled to one guaranteed seat and/or additional seat." Comelec also stated that the recomputation of seats was made following the Supreme Court's order, in Abang Lingkod Party-list vs. COMELEC, to proclaim Abang Lingkod Party-list as one of the winning PL groups in the 2013 NLE with the number of seats it may be entitled to, and in view of the then-pendency of the case of Senior Citizens Party-List before the SC. To note, Comelec said that case law instructs that the violation contemplated under the Party-List System Act does not pertain to every kind of violation but "must be one that is primarily imputable to the party itself and not one that is chiefly confined to an individual member or its nominee. "Hence, 'by arrogating upon itself the authority' to have Atty. Noel sit as a Representative in the HoR without legal basis, the violation committed by AnWaray was clearly "a violation of laws relating to elections imputable to the party as provided under Section 6(5) of R.A. No. 7941," the resolution read.