SC ruling on party-list reps might derail Cha-cha moves

Palparan welcomes SC rule, to continue fight vs rebels Jovito Palparan Jr., the man branded as "butcher" by activists, is very happy with the latest ruling of the Supreme Court, which entitles him and 31 more party-list representatives to sit in Congress for the full implementation of the constitutional provision on the party-list system. The retired major general clarified that he is not sure about the ruling because he’s yet to see the Court decision. Nonetheless, he welcomes the ruling and looks forward to working for his constituents as Rep. Palparan. “It [the ruling] is a reward for the effort of my constituents to represent them. I am happy to do something for them. We already lost two years so maybe we would just catch up," Palparan said in a phone interview with GMANews.TV Tuesday night. Palparan is the representative of Bantay, a party-list group focusing on anti-communism work. It also supports the military by following-up on their clearing operations. Once seated at the House of Representatives, Palparan said he would help communities affected by the communist New People’s Army (NPA). “Bantay would help societies afflicted with security problems. We will help our constituents which include those marginalized, the Cafgu’s because of their low salary, the BDS [Barangay Defense System], and the people affected by the NPA," he said. Palparan, a staunch ally of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, revealed that he already has a stand on the controversial move for Charter change, which is now being taken up at the House. He, however, refused to divulge more information about his position on Charter change, saying “he still has to study his moves properly." In an en-banc landmark ruling on Tuesday, the Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional the two-percent threshold in the distribution of additional party-list seats. The ruling means that all available seats for sectoral groups in the House will be filled to satisfy a constitutional provision which states that party-list representatives “shall constitute 20 per centum of the total number of representatives." The ruling also disallowed major political parties from participating in party-list elections. Palparan’s party ranked 32nd in the Supreme Court's list of party-list groups entitled to have seats in the House of Representatives.- Aie Balagtas See, GMANews.TV