1-Care gains top spot in ballots

THE 1st Consumers Alliance for Rural Energy Inc. (1-CARE), whose existence was temporarily revived by the Supreme Court (SC), is set to occupy the first slot in the official ballots to be printed for the May 13 elections.

Based on the raffle for party-list organizations conducted by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), the group of electric consumers managed to secure the first slot after their ball was drawn from the lottery drum by Chairman Sixto Brillantes.

Last October, the commission en banc disqualified 1-Care from the party-list race, believing that there is nothing in the party-list law that identifies a sector for electric consumers.

The group, however, managed to secure a status quo ante order from the SC, making it eligible for the raffle held Friday at the poll body’s main office in Manila.

Joining 1-Care in the top 10 are Arts Business and Science Professionals ABS); Pasang Masda Nationwide Party (Pasang Masda); OFW Family Club Inc. (OFW Family); Magdalo Para sa Pilipino (Magdalo); Alyansa ng Media at Showbiz (AMS); Abono Party-list (Abono); Bayani Party-list (Bayani); Advocacy for Teacher Empowerment Through Action Cooperation and Harmony Towards Educational Reforms (A Teacher); and Pilipinos With Disabilities (PWD).

Administration-allied Akbayan Citizens’ Action Party (Akbayan) managed to get the 117th spot out of the 136 groups that were raffled off.

Rival Bayan Muna got the 79th spot while its allies Gabriela will be at number 54, Kabataan at 17, Migrante at 96, ACT Teachers at 49, and Katribu at 32.

The Ang Galing Pinoy of former presidential son Representative Mikey Arroyo secured the 105th place in the ballot.

Abang Lingkod Party-list (Abang Lingkod), which was earlier disqualified by the Comelec but also got an SQA, received the last place in the ballots at 136.

Immediately after the raffle though, the Comelec announced that at least 13 groups earlier disqualified by the poll body but secured SQAs from the High Court were not supposed to be included in the raffle.

Brillantes refused to identify them yet.

“Our resolution says that those new applicants, even if they are able to get SQAs from the SC, if they do not get a mandatory injunction, we will not include them (in the raffle). Problem is in reading the resolution of the SC, they were not able to distinguish which are new applicants and which are existing,” explained Brillantes.

“In reviewing, there was some confusion and those new applicants that got SQAs were included in the list of those to be included in the raffle,” he said.

The poll chief explained that in securing “only” an SQA, the new applicants will just go back to their original status, which is being a “mere applicant.”

Asked for its effect to the just concluded raffle, Brillantes said they will be maintaining the result of the raffle but will have to resolve as soon as possible what to do with the slots gained by the 13 groups.

“We will discuss the possibilities such as if we can simply adjust upward the positions to be vacated by those who were not supposed to be included in the raffle. I think there will be no negative reactions from the groups since the raffle was done in random anyways,” he said.

Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, for his part, said it is almost impossible that the poll body will have to re-do the entire raffle proceedings although it is one of the options they can take.

Brillantes also said other groups may still join the 13 party-lists upon completion of their verification efforts.

To recall, the raffle was done by the Comelec in order to level the playing field in the positioning in the official ballots since many groups in previous elections started their party names with “1” or “A”, “AA”, and “AAA” for easy voter recognition.

In the 2010 polls, a total of 12 groups used “1”, six with “AA”, and 97 with “A” out of the 187 groups that ran, said Sarmiento.

In the 2013 line-up, 15 groups used “1”, six groups with “AA”, 71 with “A” out of the 136 groups were included in the raffle.

“Actually, having number 1 or letter A in the names are not always coming out as winners. That’s why I believe it can help but not in a major way. It might just be able to help since they are the ones that are seen first,” said Brillantes.

He said the most important factor is how the groups conduct the campaign to attract voters. (HDT/Sunnex)