Spirit of the law

The spirit and purpose rather than the letter of the law should be given more importance in its implementation. Hence if a law is susceptible to various interpretations, the interpretation in accordance with its spirit and purpose should be the one carried out.

This is the rule that must be applied with more urgency in the case of Republic Act 7941 enacted on March 13,1995 to implement Article VI Section 5 (2) of the 1987 Constitution providing for the first time, party list representations in the House of Representatives.

Apparently, Article VI Section 5 (2) was incorporated in the 1987 C0nstitution precisely to “guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service” mandated by the same document in Article II Section 18. Hence, it is quite clear that the spirit and purpose of R.A. 7941 is none other than to give equal opportunity for public service to Filipino citizens “belonging to the marginalized and underprivileged sectors, organizations and parties” by enabling them to become members of the House of Representatives through the party list system of representation.

The law itself identifies the marginalized and underprivileged to include “laborers, peasants, fisher folks, urban poor, indigenous cultural communities, elderly, handicapped, women, youth, veterans, overseas workers and professionals. The key words here are “marginalized and underprivileged”. This means the deprived, the destitute, the disadvantaged, the needy, the poor or those who remain in the fringes of our society. The purpose here is to enable them to have a voice in Congress and render public service which they cannot achieve under the present electoral system where only candidates spending the biggest amount of money end up as winners.

But since its enactment, R.A. 7941 has been a dismal failure. The spirit and purpose of said law have not been served. The flaws lie first of all on the kind of party list nominees who assumes the seat in the Lower House. They are not actually marginalized and underprivileged. As recently exposed by the election watchdog Kontra Daya, 23 of the 56 party list lawmakers are millionaires. Furthermore the nominees are not actually what they are supposed to be, based on the organization they are supposed to represent like residents of posh subdivision representing the urban poor or rich and well connected family members representing blind indigents, security guards and overseas workers. Besides it appears that even if they are really underprivileged and marginalized they do not actually promote the interest of the sectors they represent, because they are the only ones who reap the benefits of the positions won by their party, particularly the pork barrel. From being simple folks with simple taste and simple clothes like the rest of their members, they subsequently acquire the lifestyle and the taste of the rich and affluent. They are no longer marginalized and underprivileged after getting a seat in Congress.

And worse yet is that the party list organizations themselves are not marginalized and underprivileged. A list of those applying for accreditation by the COMELEC shows that even health promoters, aviation enthusiasts, athletes and hobbyists, entrepreneurs, drug users, ex-military renegades, school drop outs and foreign exchange dealers want to gain seats in the Lower House through the party list system prompting COMELEC Chairman Brillantes to describe the system as one big joke.

Even groups which can already be considered for all legal intents and purposes as “political parties” are running under the party list system of representation. Specifically they are the leftist groups advocating the ideologies of the communist party, like the Bayan Muna, Anak Pawis and Gabriela. They are similar to other political parties promoting certain platforms and ideologies so they should be allowed to participate in the elections only as a national political party like the LP, NP, NPC, Lakas, UNA etc.

Obviously RA 7941 needs a lot of revisions. This call for amendment or even the scrapping of the system has been voiced out several times in the past but nothing has happened up to now. Since amendment cannot be done yet, Comelec has to put some sense and sanity to the party list system of representation as they deliberate on the hundreds of petitions for registration and accreditation of new party list organizations. It has to uphold the spirit and policy of the Constitution in introducing this system of representation in the lower house of Congress by seeing to it that:

1. Only parties or groups of citizens representing the marginalized and underprivileged are accredited;

2. The record of activities and achievements of the applicants for the last three years should be strictly determined and verified so as to eliminate fly-by-night applicants that just want to get seats in Congress because of the pork and the perks. So parties organized only for this coming elections some with queer and funny names should be disqualified;

3. The applicants must have platforms and programs of government carefully crafted and designed to contain specific and doable plans rather than mere motherhood statements and subtle programs indicating that they are mere fronts of other groups still aiming to ultimately overthrow our democratic government;

4. Party list groups already accredited and with maximum seats in Congress but with a bigger base of captive votes that would enable them to get more seats and have a bigger slice of the party list pie at less expense should not be allowed to spin off and organize other fronts for accreditation and registration;

5. Other groups should also be carefully scrutinized to ascertain that they are not serving as mere fronts of religious organization as this is not allowed by the Constitution like what happened in past elections; and

6. Finally, the nominees of the party lists applying for accreditation should also be one of the underprivileged and marginalized people they are supposed to represent.

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