04/02/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly COMELEC. The said petition was docketed as G.R. No. 204125 and was consolidated with several other cases questioning similar issuances by the COMELEC. Eventually, the Court resolved the consolidated cases in Atong Paglaum by upholding the validity of the issuances of the COMELEC, albeit, ordering that all the petitions be remanded to the COMELEC for reevaluation of the qualifications of the party-list groups based on the new set of parameters laid down in the mentioned decision. In Atong Paglaum, the Court specifically ruled that the COMELEC did not gravely abuse its discretion, thus: We hold that the COMELEC did not commit grave abuse of discretion in following prevailing decisions of this Court in disqualifying petitioners from participating in the coming 13 May 2013 party-list elections. However, since the Court adopts in this Decision new parameters in the qualification of national, regional, and sectoral parties under the party-list system, thereby abandoning the rulings in the decisions applied by the COMELEC in disqualifying petitioners, we remand to the COMELEC all the present petitions for the COMELEC to determine who are qualified to register under the partylist system, and to participate in the coming 13 May 2013 party-list elections, under the new parameters prescribed in this Decision.[17] With a definite ruling of this Court on the absence of grave abuse of discretion in the consolidated cases of Atong Paglaum, the instant petition had become moot and academic and must therefore be dismissed. As regards the legitimacy of the nomination of the Lota Group raised by the Insigne group in their petition for intervention and opposition, the same is more aptly addressed to the COMELEC. The determination of who is the rightful representative of a political party or the legitimate nominee of a party-list group lies with the COMELEC, as part and parcel of its constitutional task of registering political parties, organizations and coalitions under Section 2(5),[18] Article IX(C) of the 1987 Constitution. In Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino v. COMELEC,[19] this Court held that the COMELEC correctly ruled that “the ascertainment of the identity of a political party and its legitimate officers is a matter that is well within its authority. The source of this authority is no other than the fundamental law itself, which vests upon the COMELEC the power and function to enforce and administer all laws and regulations relative to the conduct of an election.”[20] Apparently, the COMELEC failed to resolve the issue of the legitimacy of the nomination of the Lota Group in its Resolution dated November 7, 2012 and this was raised as an issue by the Insigne Group in the instant petition. However, with the remand of all the petitions to the COMELEC and the directive for it to redetermine the qualifications of the petitioning party-list groups, it is only appropriate that the Insigne Group present their challenge to the legitimacy of the Lota Group’s nomination before the Commission to give it the opportunity to rule on the matter at the same time that it reevaluates A-IPRA’s qualifications to run in the May 2013 elections based on the new set of guidelines in Atong Paglaum. elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/55800 5/7