EDITORIAL - Drug addicts as "honorable" congressmen

Drug addicts are marginalized in society largely by their own choice. By choosing a life that is against the law, against good health, and against almost everything that otherwise normal people would put a value on their own lives, so have drug addicts become fringe dwellers.

As such they should be disqualified for sectoral representation in Congress through this backdoor process called the party-list system. For incredible as it may seem, there is in fact such a petition for accreditation by the Comelec for a group called “Samahan ng mga Drug Addict.”

To be sure, there are those who would quickly qualify drug addicts as victims rather than offenders. But while there is merit in that qualification, pursuing it far enough as to actually grant drug addicts sectoral representation in Congress is taking the party-list folly far enough.

There are a variety of ways by which the problem of drug addiction can be addressed without having to give the wrong signals to society as a whole that drug addiction has now become a pursuit clothed with honor.

What a terrifying prospect it would be to be confronted with a situation where a drug addict has to be addressed as “honorable” in the usual manner that members of Congress are, or would want to be, addressed.

Drug addicts need help and they should be helped. But it does not help everybody else if we start filling the august halls of Congress with people, victims though they may be, who are the exact opposite of what exemplary citizens ought to be.

The Comelec should swiftly strike down the drug addicts’ petition for accreditation. In fact, it should strike all such new petitions and instead start weeding out such other sectoral groups that, for one reason or another, managed to undeservedly crash into Congress.

Better yet, it is time the party-list system is scrapped altogether because it is no more than just a costly duplication of regular representation. Embrace sectoral representation and you have to embrace every Tom, Dick and Harry who comes around. The drug addicts are proof of this.