The Philippines’ Supreme Court has decided to dismiss the petition of a group of overseas Filipino workers to join the 2010 partylist elections, the party’s media bureau said Tuesday evening. 

In an advisory, Migrante Sectoral Party said they will soon decide whether to file an appeal to the ruling which they said they only saw today. 

Connie Bragas Regalado, party chair, said the court ruling was dated December 7 and that they only knew about it upon a visit to the court’s offices in Manila. 

Migrante Sectoral Party first ran for partylist representation in 2004 but failed to get the required two-percent vote to elect a representative in the Lower House of Congress.  

In 2007, the party informed the Commission on Elections of its non-participation in that year’s elections. The Comelec would consequently tap Migrante Sectoral Party to assist in its overseas absentee voting registration drive. 

However, the Comelec disqualified the party in a decision that cited its failure to win in the last two elections, a claim which Migrante Sectoral Party has explained in its Supreme Court as erroneous and illegal. 

Migrante Sectoral Party has chapters in the Middle East, the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, Europe, Australia, Japan and other areas where there are high concentration of OFWs. 

It is among eight partylist groups comprising the progressive Patriotic Coalition of the People (Makabayan, Makabayang Koalisyon ng Mamamayan). Makabayan has also fielded two candidates for the Senate and entered into an alliance with the Nacionalista Party. 

If the Supreme Court gives due course to the party’s appeal and the latter manages to win in 2010, the Philippines would have its first duly-elected Member of Congress from the ranks of the country’s estimated 12-million overseas Filipino workers.

[Photo courtesy of Arkibong Bayan.]