Akbayan partylist back in Congress, occupies House seat vacated by An Waray

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has officially proclaimed Akbayan Citizens Action Party one of the winning party lists in the 2022 elections, paving the way for the progressive group’s return to the House of Representatives with less than a year to go before next year’s midterm polls.

In a certificate of proclamation issued on Wednesday, the Comelec en banc, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, declared Percival Cendaña the group’s representative in the 19th Congress. His term will end on June 30, 2025.

The term of Cendaña, who served as a commissioner of the National Youth Commission from 2011 to 2016, will end on June 30, 2025.

“Our victory is not a product of legal technicalities but the result of the hard work of our members, supporters, partners, and allies in bringing our brand of leadership and governance back to Congress. It is a validation of the work of progressive, democratic and reform-oriented forces to rein in the abuses and counter the excesses committed during the previous administration,” Akbayan party president Rafaela David said.

She also thanked the poll body for its swift action in issuing the certificate of proclamation and acting on a request from Congress to fill up the 63th party list seat which became vacant.

This was after the Supreme Court, voting 14 to 1, upheld on Aug. 6 the 2019 Comelec resolution to cancel An Waray’s party-list registration after its second nominee in the 2013 elections took her oath of office despite the group being entitled to only one seat.

Ranked 57th

Akbayan ended up 57th among party lists in the 2022 elections, just one spot shy of the 56 groups that were proclaimed winners.

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Its return to Congress ends its more than five-year absence in the House. Akbayan is a pioneer party-list organization in the lower chamber, having participated and won in the first party-list elections held in 1998 and all succeeding ones except in 2019.

For next year’s midterm polls, it is positioning itself as the “democratic opposition” and will be fielding former Senators Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan and Bam Aquino and human rights lawyer Chel Diokno for the senatorial race.

“We want to ensure that Sen. Risa Hontiveros has others in the Senate who are part of the democratic opposition who also champion her advocacies and laws. This is why we will support those whom we believe are truly part of the democratic opposition whom we hope will make it to the Senate in 2025,” David said. INQ