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The Supreme Court has issued a temporary restraining order against the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to enjoin it from denying the registration of three more party-list groups seeking to participate in the 2022 national elections.
In separate resolutions, the SC granted the plea for TRO by the Laban ng Isang Bayan para sa Reporma at Oportunidad (LIBRO), Friends of the Poor and Jobless party-list, and AKO BREEDER.
They sought the SC’s intervention as they questioned the validity of the Comelec’s resolution issued last September and October 2021, dismissing their registration to participate in the election for the party-list system.
The SC said the injunction is “effective immediately and continuing until further orders from this Court.”
It also required the poll body to comment on the petition “within a non-extendible period of 10 days” from receipt of notice of the resolution.
In the same resolution, the SC required the LIBRO party-list to comply within five days from notice to state the material dates showing when the notice of judgment or final order was received, when its motion for reconsideration of the Comelec order was filed, and when the notice of denial of its motion for reconsideration was received.
The SC also required AKO BREEDER to comply within the same period to submit the requirement to accompany the petition with clearly legible duplicate originals or certified true copies of the assailed order and resolution of the Comelec.
It also required AKO BREEDER to submit a soft copy of the petition and its annexes if there are any in portable document format or PDF.
Last December 21, three other party-list groups — Ang Tinig ng Senior Citizens sa Pilipinas, Inc., Lingkud Bayanihan Party, and the Mindanao Indigenous People’s Conference for Peace and Development — were also able to secure TROs from the SC.
Last December 17, the SC also issued similar orders in the case of the Alliance for Resilience, Sustainability and Empowerment and Igorot Warriors International Incorporated.
The groups were among the 126 party-list applicants for the 2022 elections the Comelec had denied.
A total of 270 party-list groups had filed their certificate of nomination and acceptance during the weeklong filing last October.