Abang Lingkod () is a political organization with representation in the

House of Representatives of the Philippines The House of Representatives of the Philippines ( fil, Kapulungan ng mga Kinatawan ng Pilipinas, italic=unset, ''Kamara'' or ''Kamara de Representantes'' from the Spanish word ''cámara'', meaning "chamber") is the lower house of Congress, the ...

. It aims to represent the interest of Filipino

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer m ...

s and

fishermen A fisher or fisherman is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishers may be professional or recreati ...

History

Abang Lingkod registered on December 22, 2009, to participate in the 2010 House of Representatives elections under the

party-list system A party-list system is a type of electoral system that formally involves political parties in the electoral process, usually to facilitate multi-winner elections. In party-list systems, parties put forward a list of candidates, the party-list who s ...

but failed to obtain a seat in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

. On May 31, 2012, Abang Lingkod manifested its intent to participate in the 2013 House of Representatives elections before the

Commission on Elections An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

(COMELEC). With questions surrounding its nominees, it was among the several party-lists that were sought to be disqualified by the poll watchdog group Kontra Daya and left-wing human rights group

Karapatan Karapatan Alliance Philippines (commonly shortened to Karapatan, which translates to ''rights'' in Filipino) is a left-wing non-governmental organization and human rights alliance that conducts research and advocacy of human rights campaigns as ...

claiming that "its nominees and leaders possess interest in conflict and adverse to the interests of peasants/farmers." In November 2012, COMELEC disqualified several party-lists including Abang Lingkod. However, the said party-list was able to secure a

status quo ante ''Status quo ante'' may refer to: * ''Status quo ante'' (phrase), Latin for "the way things were before" * Status Quo Ante (Hungary), Jewish communities in Hungary See also * ''Status quo ante bellum The term ''status quo ante bellum'' i ...

order from the Supreme Court, thus allowing it to participate again in the 2013 elections. With a ruling on April 5, 2013, that the party-list system was not only for marginalized sectors, the Supreme Court decided in favor of the 54 disqualified party-list groups, which included Abang Lingkod, and ordered COMELEC to conduct "evidentiary hearings" to determine their eligibility to participate in the 2013 election. On May 6, 2013, COMELEC once again ruled against Abang Lingkod. As Abang Lingkod was already included in the official ballots despite its disqualification, it was able to garner more than 260,000 votes but was not proclaimed by COMELEC pending their appeal to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court once again issued a

order on June 5, 2013, in response to COMELEC's resolution disqualifying Abang Lingkod. On October 22, 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that Abang Lingkod "need not prove track record" and on November 27, 2013, voting 10–4, ordered COMELEC to proclaim Abang Lingkod. COMELEC filed for a motion for reconsideration but it was denied and ruled with finality by the Supreme Court in February 2014. With the legal hurdles resolved, its first nominee

Joseph Stephen Paduano Joseph Stephen Paduano (born January 22, 1965), also known by his nom de guerre Carapali Lualhalti, is a Filipino politician who previously served as the House Minority Leader from 2020 to 2022. He has been the party-list representative for Aban ...

was finally sworn into office on May 28, 2014.

Electoral performance

Representatives to Congress

References

{{Philippine political parties Party-lists represented in the House of Representatives of the Philippines Political organizations based in the Philippines Agrarian parties in the Philippines