The COOP-NATCCO PARTYLIST, which represents the cooperative sector in Congress, accuses the COMELEC of ‘sabotage’ for changing the numbers assigned to Party-list groups without due notice. In the final Certified List of Candidates for Party-list released by COMELEC earlier this month and currently posted at the COMELEC website, the assigned number for Coop-NATCCO is 133. However, in the official ballot, Coop-NATCCO was listed at 139. Other party-list groups were also affected.

“Why did the COMELEC change the number of partylists without any notice or explanation? This is a form of sabotage against us because the voters will be confused, especially now that we’ve already informed thousands of our cooperative members that our party-list Coop-NATCCO is number 133 in the official ballot. Suddenly, we are at 139!” Coop-NATCCO Representative Jose Ping-ay exclaimed.


 

In the National Ballot Template for ARMM and Non-ARMM areas posted at the COMELEC website since February 8, the design of the ballot was changed as well as the numbering of party-lists groups.

“This is a blatant disrespect to the organizations of the marginalized sectors of our society. Imagine, they can just change anything without informing the public. If we haven’t checked in the Official Ballot template then we ourselves would be confused. The COMELEC should explain and apologize for these inconsistencies. The damage they caused us is enormous; our resources were put to waste,” Coop-NATCCO Representative Cresente Paez added referring to the campaign materials the Party has produced that are no longer usable because of the change in number.

Coop-NATCCO complains of incompetence of the COMELEC and questions why it has to adjust the numbers when no party-list has been added to the 187-certified-list.

“We are not guinea pigs. We are real and legitimate organizations of the Filipino people. We are marginalized sectors so we don’t have big amount of money to spend for the campaign. Dahil dito para na rin kaming naloko. COMELEC should act with decisiveness and competence. It should not engage in trial and error mechanisms,” the solons said.

Coop-NATCCO Party-list considers filing a legal action against the COMELEC.

Coop-NATCCO currently occupies two seats in Congress. It consistently won representation in every party-list election since 1998. It aims to install three representatives in May elections.#