By EUGENE ADIONG
BACOLOD City — Negros Occidental now has 10 representatives in Congress.
On Wednesday evening, Lower House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. swore in Joseph Stephen Paduano of Abang Lingkod party-list after the chamber received the latter’s certificate of proclamation from the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Paduano, a former Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB) leader, is the 10th representative from Negros Occidental and the 290th legislator in the House of Representatives in the 16th Congress.
The province is already represented by legislators from six congressional districts and the Lone District of Bacolod City, and party-list congressmen Neri Colmenares of Bayan Muna and Gary Alejano of Magdalo.
Abang Lingkod is a sectoral organization representing farmers and fisherfolk. It participated in the May 2010 elections but failed to get the needed number of votes to have a seat in Congress. It was able to secure a party-list seat in the 2013 mid-term elections.
Militants had sought the disqualification of the group, accusing it of being a gun-for-hire organization supported by landed families in Negros Occidental.
Paduano was once known as Carapali Lualhati, national commander of RPA-ABB, a communist urban hit squad that broke away from the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army.
Comelec disqualified Abang Lingkod from running in 2013 for failing to represent the marginalized sector, but the Supreme Court later ruled in favor of the group.
When they were disqualified, the group took the case to the high tribunal, which stopped the Comelec from implementing the order against them.
The Supreme Court allowed Abang Lingkod to participate in the elections while the case was pending before eventually ruling to compel Comelec to proclaim it.
Abang Lingkod obtained 260,215 votes out of the overall 26,722,131 party-list votes./PN
