The Philippine Online Chronicles

Originally intended to promote comprehensive program-based politics instead of just personality-dependent platforms of governance, the party-list system has nevertheless managed to open itself up to abuses by self-serving groups and traditional politicians or “trapos.”

In what appears to be a disturbing trend during elections, poll watchdogs tend to question the creation and accreditation of certain party-list groups, claiming these to be pseudo factions that only breed cronyism and corruption instead of genuinely representing the “marginalized and underrepresented” sectors for which the system was originally created.

The sheer number of party-list groups alone is enough to confuse the average Filipino who lacks, to begin with, adequate educational background on what the system is all about.

Why do we need to care about the party-list system anyway?

The fact that the system can be subverted into a tool by power-hungry individuals to gain more power for their own selves is enough for the electorate to care which party-list groups are legitimate and which ones are just “fronts” designed to hinder the entry of those that have valid representation.

One example of the latter was the party-list group led by former General Jovito Palparan, who gained notoriety among militant groups – who call him “butcher” – for his alleged role in extrajudicial killings, abduction and torture of government critics. His group, Bantay, lacked any clear advocacy for a specific marginalized group, but openly admitted that it wanted to block the entry of Leftists into government.

Another alleged pseudo faction, Kasangga, claimed to represent balut vendors but turned out to be led by Ma. Lourdes Arroyo, First Gentleman Miguel Arroyo’s younger sister who was certainly not a vendor since she came from a wealthy family in the Visayas.

These misplaced and selfish intentions contribute to the total disillusionment of Filipinos with this system. Hence, the lack of interest to the long line-up of party list groups. Why bother after all with a system that is not seen to be fulfilling its intended purpose?

For the May 10 elections, the Commission on Elections has approved no less than 187 certified candidates for party-list groups. That is 52 percent higher than the number of party-list groups in the May 1998 elections when the Filipino electorate was first introduced to this system.

Awareness has been low among the voting population from the start. 123 party list organizations registered for the elections in 1998 but only 13 received 2% of total votes. Of the 80% total voter turnout, only 26% cast their party-list vote. The blame was cast on the Comelec, then as now, for failing to conduct a comprehensive education campaign.

In 2001, only 10 out of the 162 party-list contenders hurdled the 2% minimum number of votes, while in 2004, out of 55 groups approved to participate, only 15 made it to the House of Representatives. In 2007, only 17 of the 93 accredited party list groups were able to garner seats.

During this last election, the Center for People Empowerment and Governance (CenPEG) cited reports that claimed only about six of the qualified 17 groups can be said to represent marginalized groups. The rest were affiliated either with well-funded religious-political groups, traditional political parties, or medium-scale business enterprises. Some even made it to Congress through alleged fraud, government connections, and aggressive TV publicity.

The Comelec has admitted that screening party-list nominees is beyond its job. Its duty is to accredit the party-list organizations and publish the names of the nominees. Certain sectors repeatedly call on the Comelec to educate the public on the party-list system and make sure all those in the long list deserve to be there.

But with the Commission saddled with the task of educating over 50 million registered voters on the proper procedures and virtues of automated election, there may not be enough time to tackle other issues. On the other hand, lawmakers who stand to gain from having additional votes in Congress through their bogus party-list organizations cannot be relied upon to clean up the system.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez placed the burden of screening party list nominees on the vigilance of voters and electoral reform groups.  This is really the last option if we want to prevent the same unsavory characters of the past administration rising from the dead to claim their seats in Congress through the backdoor of the party-list system.

Here is a list of the 187 Party List Groups while this list is divided into four tabs: "1-A to AKB," "AKO to ANAK," "ANG to COOP," and "DAM to YOU."

Photo: “Philippine Congress Joint Session on Maguindanao Martial Law” by Victor Villanueva, c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved

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