EDITORIAL - A failed experiment

The party-list system, according to a member of the commission that crafted the Constitution, was envisioned to be an experiment in congressional representation. At the hands of people with unbridled greed for political clout and all the perks of public office, the experiment is doomed to failure. Today the party list has become nothing more than a backdoor entrance to the House of Representatives.

Major political parties use it to install more partisans in the House, with the same right to vote and the same pork barrel allocations as regular congressmen. Major religious groups use it to advance their interests and expand their influence in the political realm. And President Arroyo, in the twilight of her nine years in power, appears bent on installing every able-bodied relative and loyalist official in the House, even through the backdoor, and even if none of the officials can be considered marginalized by any stretch of the imagination, to ensure her continuing influence over national affairs.

This system is not permanent. The party list can be scrapped through a constitutional amendment. The next Congress can amend the enabling law for the constitutional provision to prevent the abuse of the system, although it’s unlikely that lawmakers can rise above narrow self-interests to change a system where they are the principal beneficiaries.

But even before the current crop of dubious nominees, hiding in the shadows of the front organizations that are supposed to represent the marginalized, can be installed in Congress, there’s an agency that can stand in their way: the Commission on Elections.

Comelec officials lamented recently that they can only do so much to purge the party list of dubious nominees. This is a cop-out; there are implementing rules for the party-list law that the Comelec can revise or fine-tune. Millions of pesos in public funds are set to be wasted on party-list representatives who are perverting the system. The Comelec should not shirk its duty of stopping this travesty.