ALIF Representative Tomawis, meanwhile, was a party-list nominee of the Laban ng Demokrutikong Pilipino (LDP) in 2001. The LDP was disqualified then because it was clearly a traditional political party that was more than amply represented in both houses of Congress. PM asked the Comelec to disqualify ALIF this time because it violated one of the criteria for party-list accreditation: that not only must the party be marginalized, so must its candidate. "Tomawis is a big businessman engaged in overseas trucking, particularly trucking services in Iraq," the PM said in its petition. A number of party-list representatives see Tomawis's assumption as congressman as the most questionable of all the controversial party-list nominations.

	VICTIMS OF FRAUD. The cheating in 2004 also affected radical party-list groups, like those above taking part in an anti-war demonstration.

The third group included in the petition for disqualification is ANAD, which is composed of former members of the notorious anti-communist vigilante group Alsa Masa. "It is in truth a project organized and an entity assisted by the government to promote an anti-communist position," the PM said.

How such groups were able 10 sneak in anyway has long been a frustrating mystery for other party-list organizations. Another puzzle is the suspiciously high number of votes certain first-time party-list groups obtained in Mindanao, particularly in the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao or ARMM. Since the Garci tapes surfaced, however, speculations have grown that negotiations were being made at the Comelec level, not only for questionable groups to be included in the race, but also for these to obtain votes afterward.

Various party-list groups have noted the mathematical improbability of such figures, especially since the survey group Social Weather Stations predicted before the elections that the voter turnout for party-list elections would not he more than 40 percent. In Quezon City, headquarters of some of the biggest party-list groups and focus of intense election propaganda, the turnout of party-list votes was only 35 percent. Party-list groups wondered how the results could more than double in far away ARMM.

Interestingly, it was in Lanao del Sur where ALIF got the bulk of its votes. Comelec records show that ALIF got 116,489 votes in that province, representing more than one-third of total votes from there. This presents another statistical conundrum: there were 66 party-list organizations that competed, and there were at least three others based in Mindanao or having a Muslim constituency. How could an unknown, first-time organization like ALIF corner the lion's share in such a crowded field?

There were other suspicious results as well. In Basilan. the party-list topnotcher was the unknown Visayas Farmers Party or Agrifil, which got more than 90,000. The party-list group Anak Mindanao (AMIN) called the Comelec's attention to that "irregularity." Last September, the Comelec's first division responded; it said it was indeed statistically impossible for Agrifil to win because its papers showed that its base were the Western Visayan provinces of Aldan, Capiz, Guimaras, and Iloilo where it got only 11,464 votes. The Comelec said Agrifil "had no clear constituency" in Basilan and called for the investigation of the provincial election supervisor.

Shortly after the Garci tapes scandal broke out, Comelec chief Benjamin Abalos himself said that his office would prosecute the Basilan election officials responsible for the Agrifil votes. The decision, though, has yet to be implemented.

The Comelec has also failed in other things, particularly in being more transparent about the party-list count, which to this day remains unfinished. At the very least, party-list organizations are demanding accountability from the Commission. "They (the Comelec) are very evasive when we ask them about the last remaining COC (Certificate of Canvass) that still needs to be canvassed. They never came out with official statement of any sort regarding the conclusion of the party-list canvass," says Blanca Kim Bernardo-Lokin, second nominee of the party-list group CIBAC, which along with party-list groups PM, Butil, and Gabri-ela are awaiting proclamation of their second nominees.

Of course, the Comelec can always say it is besieged with a mountain of complaints from party-list groups — some with legitimate grievances and others without. Most of them are asking for a recount, presenting COCs showing they won enough voles for a seat in Congress.

Groups like Akbayan are wondering how the Comelec will deal with the situation. A recount has probably been granted since the Comelec is poised to proclaim new winners. But Akbayan's Llamas asks: "If they restore the votes of a group which says it was robbed of votes, then that means they have to take away votes from those who stole. We don't know how the Comelec is doing it, And we don't know either how the other party-list groups managed to scrounge for votes. Where are all these votes coming from?"