Political dynasties have invaded party-list groups

Commission on Elections Chair Sixto Brillantes and his commissioners should be commended by a grateful nation for trying to cleanse the party-list system. They have disqualified many sitting representatives of party-list groups and many groups themselves. They have discovered that only five of the sitting representatives of party-list groups are not millionaires. Many more don’t actually belong to the marginalized sectors these groups are supposed to represent.

The poster boy of this group is Mikey Arroyo, son of former President and now Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is supposed to represent security guards. Mikey was formerly the representative of his mother’s district in Pampanga, but when GMA decided to seek that congressional seat after her term as president ended, Mikey, in order to stay in Congress, suddenly became the first nominee of a group purportedly representing security guards. Mikey is not, never has been, and will never become a security guard. Neither is he marginalized, being a multimillionaire who owns real estate in the United States, for which he is facing tax evasion charges here.

There are many security guards around us—in our subdivisions, in shopping malls and many other public buildings. Ask some of them if they are members of the party of security guards that Mikey is supposed to be representing, and they will answer that they are not and never have been. In other words, Mikey’s party-list group is bogus, as are many others accredited by the Comelec and many more that have applied for accreditation. In fact, it is not far-fetched to surmise that Mikey was elected not because he was championing the cause of security guards but because he is the son of a president.

There are many more like Mikey and his party-list group that the Comelec has disqualified. No doubt, the Comelec will disqualify more groups, whether accredited or still seeking accreditation. A total of 289 new groups have applied for next year’s party-list elections alone, more than 99 percent of which, surely, are bogus.

The party-list system has been clearly abused because of the laxity and leniency of past Comelec administrations. All one has to do is invent a name for a group, preferably one starting with the letter “A,” and apply for accreditation. In the past, chances were that the party-list group, even if bogus as bogus can be, will be accepted by the Comelec because of laziness, laxity, leniency, and pressure. Even now, pressure is being exerted by senators on the Comelec to withdraw the disqualification of the party-list group Ako Bicol. We ask and hope that the Comelec will be steadfast and stand its ground. The senators are clearly courting the Bicolano votes. How can Bicolanos be marginalized and underrepresented when the Bicol region has already many congressmen and senators in Congress? And the number is bound to increase because of gerrymandering in Camarines Sur.

Not only should party-list groups be disqualified, the party-list system should also be abolished because, as we can all see, it is clearly being abused. Political dynasties have already invaded the party-list system, with their scions being the nominees of the groups. The fastest way to stop this abuse is to abolish the party-list system completely. But of course that will need a constitutional amendment. That can be done by an act of Congress and submitted to the people in a plebiscite.

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An interesting aspect of the controversy in the party-list system is the ongoing conflict between Akbayan and Anakbayan and its allied groups. The latter have sought the disqualification of Akbayan because “it is no longer marginalized” and is already “an adjunct of the government.” Several Akbayan members are in P-Noy’s Cabinet and another member, Risa Hontiveros, who used to represent it in the House of Representatives, is running for senator in the administration ticket in the 2013 elections.

This issue is interesting because it is but a new phase in the long-running competition between the democratic Left as represented by Akbayan, and groups identified with the extreme Left such as Anakbayan, the Bayan Muna party-list group, Kilusang Mayo Uno, etc.

To keen observers of the Philippine Left, the quarrel is seen simply as a Left-versus-Left thing, on one hand by Akbayan, which supported P-Noy in the 2010 elections, and on the other hand by Bayan Muna et al. and its catastrophic support for Manny Villar. This is a battle between Akbayan, which advocates free and open participation in elections and other forms of democratic engagements to achieve political change, and Bayan Muna et al., which exercise politics associated with the armed Left.

In September, a disqualification case was also filed against Bayan Muna by rebel-returnee organizations, for purportedly being an extension of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army. Bayan Muna and its allied groups, the accusers charge, “are very noisy on almost all sociopolitical issues but are silent on NPA atrocities and extortion activities, the use of child soldiers and the use of land mines.” Bayan Muna et al. branded the accusations as Red-baiting, saying these charges put their members in harm’s way.

“The public’s scrutiny must focus on Bayan Muna and its satellite party-list groups such as Anakpawis, Gabriela, Kabataan, Katribu, Migrante, and Kalikasan regarding those links with the CPP-NPA,” the rebel-returnee groups’ petition read.