Familiar to many is the proverb or aphorism that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Many people take this to mean that many ventures start out with well-intentioned purposes, but somewhere along the way from conception to execution, something goes awry and ends up in disaster—or hell.
The party-list experience in the Philippines is fast proving this rather cynical saying true. What was originally intended as a political mechanism to give so-called “marginalized sectors” a chance to participate in mainstream politics has, through the years, evolved into a hodge-podge of special interest groups, associations and quasi-political parties.
From parties contesting seats in the House of Representatives for such groups as farmers, laborers, the disabled and women, party-list contenders now include security guards, electric cooperatives, sports personalities, savings and loans associations, and parent-teacher groups.
Even more absurd than the extension of the title of “party list” to any sort of gathering of folks and mere barkada is the choice of the top nominees. One of them was former representative Mikey Arroyo, the son of former president and now Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who represented a party list of security guards and tricycle drivers even if he obviously never stood guard before an establishment or drove a tricycle. Another glaring example is Rep. John Bertiz, party-list representative of ACTS OFW, purporting to represent overseas Filipino workers even if he himself is a recruiter, an obvious conflict of interest.
Another party-list representative gained notoriety when a nongovernment group sought her ouster after she posted on social media photos of her receiving a transfusion of a skin-whitening agent while in her office and during official working hours. Who knows? Maybe whitening her skin was part of her mandate for her party list, which purports to improve the eyesight of Filipinos.
No wonder an author of the party-list law, former Maguindanao representative Michael Mastura, expressed his frustration at how the system has turned out, decrying how it has been “hijacked” by folks who obviously do not belong to the sector they seek to represent. National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections secretary general Eric Alvia has likewise observed that the system has already been “bastardized” by people who wanted to enter Congress through the backdoor.
Indeed, Kontra Daya, an electoral watchdog group, has urged the Commission on Elections to publicly release posthaste pertinent information on party-list organizations before next year’s polls. It is “important for the public to screen this early the qualifications of the organization, particularly their list of nominees and programs of action,” it said.
Since voters can elect only one party-list group among the 185 vying for at least one seat in the House, it’s only right to give the electorate as much information as possible on everyone and every party list seeking a mandate.
The stakes cannot be overstressed. Already, someone like a prominent blogger, “she who will not be named” and noted for her use of fake news, offensive video antics and spirited defense of her “Tatay Digong,” is running under a party list and vowing publicly to get back at her enemies. Why a party list? The reason is obvious: It’s a relatively low-cost way of entering the House of Representatives without having to spend the millions that have become part of the traditional political circus.
Aside from the Comelec fully disclosing as much information as possible about the party lists and their nominees, the poll body would do well to strenuously sift genuine party-list groups from fake and self-serving ones. Part of this imperative is also for all concerned parties to give promising party-list groups the training, the organizational muscle and the network support to jump into the electoral maelstrom.
If we leave the party-list system to founder by itself in its present form, we will not only pave the road with ill intentions, we will also be speeding up the country’s pell-mell rush to democratic hell.