RETIRED general Jovito Palparan is now a congressman after the Supreme Court (SC) decided to increase to 55 the number of seats in the House of Representatives for party list groups.

At present, there are only 22 seats in the 14th Congress occupied by 16 party list groups.

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The SC ruling, which is effective immediately, is expected to pave the way for Palparan, who is representing Bantay Bayan party list, to become a member of the House.

SC came up with a new formula on the party list threshold for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to follow.

In a text message, House Speaker Prospero Nograles said that with the SC decision, he will have no other choice but to administer Palparan's oath of office.

The new formula ordered by the SC is for the 36 winning party list groups to fill up seats equivalent to 20 percent of the House as prescribed by the Party-list System Act of 1995 or Republic Act (RA) 7941.

The old formula being followed by the Comelec states that only party list organizations garnering at least two percent of the total votes cast nationwide for the party list system shall be entitled to one seat each.

The high court said the old formula is mathematically impossible to distribute the additional seats won by leading party list groups when the number of available seats exceeds 50.

Reports showed that the two percent threshold followed by the Comelec appears to be based on the original 250 seats of the House -- 20 percent of 250 is 50 and 100 percent divided by 50 seats is two percent per seat.

The tribunal said the 20 percent was equivalent to 55 seats, up from only 17 guaranteed party list seats under the two percent rule.

The SC added that although filling up the 55 seats was not meant to be mandatory, the continuous application of the two percent threshold frustrates the attainment of the permissive ceiling that 20 percent of the members of the House of Representatives shall consist of party list representatives. (BOT)