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| Photo Credit: Philippine Daily Inquirer |
At present the Filipino public has taken its hat off to COMELEC
chairman Sixto Brillantes who is seen to have done a good job as a head of that
government office. Brillantes denied the accreditation of several groups as
Party List. He disqualified 7other groups which have already sitting representatives.
He also did the same to still other groups which were previously registered in
the last election but failed to garner enough votes. Brillantes’ action is in
contrast with that of previous commissioners who accredited and registered groups
as party list as if what they were granting were a commodity in the public
market.
Many people are not happy or satisfied with the party list system
since its implementation because the constitutional provision is abused by
powerful and influential groups. This malpractice has defeated the vision of
the framers of the 1987 constitution that is to provide opportunities to the
marginalized and underrepresented sectors of the society to have a voice in the
Philippine Law making process. Some groups that are in the party list are just
front of a political party or powerful political family whose aim is to expand its
political power thus promoting political dynasty. Others are apparently identified
with a religious groups or organization and still others can hardly be
categorized as belonging to marginalized groups. And most of the nominees of
the party list groups are millionaires and some of them do not even belong to
the group they are supposed to represent.
Some Filipinos want the party list system abolished because
it has only served the interest of the elite and the privileged group rather
than that of the poor. A glaring example of abuse of this system is the party
list group of the son of a former president who is supposed to represent
security guards, tricycle drivers, farmers and small businessmen. However, he was
never any of them and above all he does not belong to a marginalized family
being a millionaire. Records also show that he has not done a deliberate effort
to help these groups in his three years in office as their representative. He
only authored one bill for security guard that is to extend the expiry of his
license from one year to three years. Unfortunately, the bill is still pending
for approval in congress.
The party list system is embodied in the Philippine
constitution so that it cannot just be abolished unless the constitution is
amended or replaced with a new one.
Philippine Constitution provides that the house of representative shall
be composed of 250 members and this number includes the members of the party
list who will constitute 20% of all its members who come from labor, peasants,
urban poor, indigenous cultural communities, women, youth, overseas workers,
the physically handicapped, veterans and professionals to exclude the religious
groups. Since then the number of legislative districts has increased to 229. If
that is 80% of the regular members of congress then the total number of all
members shall be 286. And the 20% of that which is composed of the party list
members shall be 57.
Commissioner Brillantes’ mettle will be tested in the May 2013
mid-term election. It will be the first main election that will be conducted
under his watch. A clean and honest election next year will be a feather in his
cap.
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