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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider SC asked to stop Gabriela Women's Party from sitting as 64th Party-list group in Congress

SC asked to stop Gabriela Women's Party from sitting as 64th Party-list group in Congress

Published Sep 17, 2025 06:02 pm
The Supreme Court (SC) was asked on Wednesday, Sept. 17, to stop the Gabriela Women’s Party from sitting as the 64th Party-list group in the House of Representatives (HOR).
The petition was filed by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) through the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG).
It asked the SC to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop the proclamation. If the Gabriela Women’s Party had been proclaimed, it asked the SC to issue a status quo ante order.
NTF-ELCAC filed the petition after the Commission on Election (Comelec) officially declared Gabriela as a winning Party-list in the May 12, 2025 elections.
It challenged the Comelec resolution as it pointed out that it has a pending petition before the poll body to disqualify the Gabriela group. It said its 2019 petition has not been resolved.
It told the SC that the proclamation of the Gabriela Women’s Party violates the provisions of the 1987 constitution and Republic Act No. 7941, the Party-list System Act, which limits the number of Party-lists to not more than 20 percent of the HOR’s entire membership.
It cited Section 11 of R.A. 7941, which states: “The Party-list representatives shall constitute twenty percent (20%) of the total number of the members of the House of Representatives including those under the Party-list.”
It also cited a decision of the SC which ruled that “Party-list representatives cannot be more than 20 percent of the members of the House.”
Thus, it told the SC that there is absolutely no necessity for Gabriela to be added as the so-called ‘64th party-list representative.
The current allocation of 63 seats has already reached the constitutional ceiling, fully satisfying the mandate of proportional representation, it said.
“To insist on Gabriela’s inclusion would not only be superfluous but would be in grave contravention of the clear intent of the Constitution and binding jurisprudence…,” it added.
The SC is now on a three-week decision writing recess. It will resume its full court sessions on Tuesday, Sept. 23.
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