Comelec to name 29 unaccredited partylist groups

By Anna Valmero
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 18:42:00
03/17/2010



Filed Under: Eleksyon 2010, Politics, Elections


Original Story: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20100317-259252/Comelec-to-name-29-unaccredited-partylist-groups


MANILA, Philippines – Twenty-nine partylist groups that will appear on the ballots of the automated elections on May 10 remain unaccredited pending the resolution of their petitions for reconsideration, Commission on Elections Chairman Jose Melo said Wednesday.

Melo said the poll agency would issue a resolution identifying the 29 of the 187 partylist and sectoral groups whose names, along with 158 others, were included in the ballots that were printed starting in February.

“We would come down with a breakdown of which of the 187 partylist groups are duly accredited and those that are not. Previously, we have approved the petition for accreditation of 158 groups but we printed 187 because back then, some 29 groups have pending unresolved cases,” said Melo.

Melo declined to say whether the six allegedly government-sponsored partylist groups mentioned by Kontra Daya in its petition for non-accreditation were among the 29.

These are: Batang Iwas Droga (Bida), Adhikain ng mga Dakilang Anak ng Maharlika (Adam), Agbiag Timpuyog Ilokano (Agbiag), Babae para sa Kaunlaran (Babae Ka), League of Youth for Peace and Development (Lypad) and Kalahi Advocates for Overseas Filipinos (Kalahi).

But Melo noted that the poll watchdog might be more concerned with the “probable nominees that the groups would field for the May polls” more than the advocacy of the party itself.

In a separate interview, Comelec commissioner Rene Sarmiento said the public, for the first time, could question the qualifications of a partylist nominee after the Comelec ordered all partylist groups to submit the list of their nominees with the poll body's legal department on or before March 26.


Original Story: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20100317-259252/Comelec-to-name-29-unaccredited-partylist-groups