MANILA, Philippines?I really don?t know why members of the Macapagal-Arroyo family enjoy so much luck when it comes to legal matters.
Remember the time when former FG Mike Arroyo racked up a nearly unblemished record with prosecutors who found prima facie evidence in every case of libel he had filed against more than 30 journalists? This, even if the newspaper articles touched on matters that had to do with his being a public figure, being the then-incumbent president?s husband. Of course, his lawyer argued that the FG was a private person and thus his actions were not covered by the ?public interest? defense. But this legal test of what constitutes a public figure was never really settled. After Arroyo suffered a nearly-fatal heart condition (necessitating a virtual transfer of Malacańang to his hospital room since his wife wanted to stay by his bedside), he issued a statement that he was withdrawing all the libel cases he had filed since he had ?forgiven? all those pesky journalists. I remember that the journalists (those ungrateful souls!), instead of gratefully accepting the FG?s magnanimity, decided to pursue their own case against him, although I don?t remember now how that case was settled.
And who could be luckier than the former president herself? Despite the annual impeachment cases lodged against her (which were routinely dismissed by the House justice committee), she also weathered quite serenely many corruption and abuse of power charges hurled at her, from the declaration of emergency rule to the ZTE-NBN controversy (where her role included a trip to China during her husband?s hospitalization, undertaken ?like a thief in the night,? so her own publicists said), to the fertilizer fund scam and on to the ?midnight appointee? mess she created. In all these, she got off scot-free, thanks in large part to an indulgent Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez and a cooperative Supreme Court.
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AND now comes Mikey Arroyo, who is set to stroll into the Batasan Session Hall tomorrow as a party-list representative of Ang Galing Pinoy (AGP), a party registered as representing the interests of security guards and tricycle drivers.
Mikey?s entry into the House of Representatives comes by way of another ?lucky? break, after four Comelec commissioners ruled that he may sit as representative of AGP because the law doesn?t require that a nominee has to belong to a marginalized group, only that he be a bona fide member of the party.
The petition to disqualify the young Arroyo has been raised to the Supreme Court, which in a previous decision said a party-list nominee must himself ?belong to the marginalized and underrepresented sector? he seeks to represent. But this columnist for one isn?t keeping her fingers crossed, given the Arroyos? amazing good luck before legal bodies, including the highest tribunal which yesterday?s editorial said ?has been called the Arroyo Court.?
Will the members of the Court, which previously gifted Ms Arroyo with a decision finessing her power to appoint the new chief justice, surprise us all and reiterate its ruling that a millionaire and former government official is not fit to sit as a spokesman for a marginalized and underrepresented sector? I wonder what kind of legalistic hemming and hawing the Supreme Court ponente will use in deciding the case. Perhaps he or she will re-define the words ?representative,? ?marginalized,? ?underrepresented? and ?belong.?
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MIKEY?S return to the House as AGP party-list representative has been described in many corners as a return ?via the backdoor.?
While this conveys rather accurately the sneaky, deceitful nature of Mikey?s road back to the House, it unfortunately underlines the early impression that party-list representation is somehow inferior to district representation. Early in the inception of the party-list system, some congresspersons were heard snidely referring to how some party-list representatives had an ?easy? time of it, since they didn?t have to campaign as much, or spend as much.
But in truth a party list, unless it considers itself a regional party, runs a national campaign, seeking votes around the country and reaching out to voters beyond its natural constituency or its ?command vote? structure. What makes a party-list campaign even more difficult is that a genuine party-list group, which truly seeks to represent marginalized or underrepresented interests, often has to struggle to raise campaign money. If it had a ?deep? campaign chest, then people would be right to question the group?s pedigree, and if it is the beneficiary of generous donors, one must wonder about the quid for the quo, since big political donors don?t normally share the same advocacies as farmers, workers, urban poor or the disabled.
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WHICH is why I wonder what other genuine party-list groups think of Mikey?s insertion among their ranks.
If Mikey had, in his previous life as an influential congressman and son of the incumbent president, advocated for poor folk or for their concerns, I don?t think too many people would find his AGP affiliation so offensive. But in his previous terms in Congress, Mikey seemed more concerned about wielding power and bending the chamber to his will.
He has explained that while he has been an adviser of AGP for many years, as a congressman he had been a member of the committee on energy and so was focused on bills that had to do with power generation.
But even so, there?s no law or House rule that a member cannot advocate on matters beyond one?s committee membership. The truth of the matter is that Mikey is only belatedly discovering his ties to ?sekyus? and drivers, all for his own benefit, of course.
