AN industry leader has asked the Supreme Court to cancel the registration of party-list Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers Association (LPGMA) instead of returning the case to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), saying that it would only prolong the process.

This would only prolong the process, said Jesus Arranza, chairman of the Federation of Philippine Industries. He said there was no need to return the case to Comelec since the High Tribunal already has the position papers of all the parties involved.

“The case is ripe for decision as all the parties to the case, including the Office of the Solicitor General [OSG], have already submitted their respective position papers,” Arranza said in the urgent motion for an early resolution of the case which he filed on Monday with the SC.

Comelec accredited the LPGMA and allowed it to participate in the 2010 elections. It garnered enough votes to have its president, Arnel Ty, sit as a party-list representative.

But Arranza challenged the Comelec accreditation, saying the LPGMA was not a marginalized group and did not represent an underrepresented sector of society. “Comelec had gravely abused its discretion when it approved the LPGMA’s accreditation just before the May 2010 elections,” he said.

The solicitor general earlier requested the Court to return the case to Comelec.  Arranza said this meant the OSG found merit in his petition since being the counsel of Comelec, the OSG would normally have sided with its client and moved for the outright dismissal of the petition.

“Instead, the solicitor general asked the Supreme Court to direct Comelec to scrutinize the qualifications of LPGMA. This only means that the solicitor general appears to have found merit in my petition,” Arranza said.

Still, Arranza said it would be best for the Supreme Court to rule on the issue already instead of throwing it back to Comelec.

“This way, the controversy would be resolved immediately. Remanding the case to Comelec would only prolong its resolution, which would be contrary to the interest of the public since the term of party-list representatives in Congress is only three years,” he said. “It is a known fact in the business circle that the LPGMA cannot be considered marginalized since its members are able to obtain billions of pesos in bank loans.”