EDITORIAL — Hijacking the party-list

The incoming 20th Congress will have a lot on its plate, foremost of which are the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte and reforms in the budget process. Citizen election monitoring arm Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting is pushing for electoral reforms, particularly governing premature campaigning and the display of campaign materials.

This week the Center for People Empowerment and Governance also sounded the alarm over the “hijacking” of the party-list system by political dynasties, wealthy businessmen and other members of the elite, at the expense of groups that genuinely represent the marginalized. CENPEG said the undermining of the party-list system weakened sectoral representation and entrenched elite rule.

In a statement, CENPEG lamented that “decades of flawed implementation, court rulings that opened the system to almost anyone, and the entry of powerful political families and big businesses have undermined” the intent of Republic Act 7941, the Party-List System Act of 1995, to promote marginalized representation.

“Instead of serving as a platform for genuine representation, the party-list system has become a backdoor for traditional politicians and economic elites to further consolidate power,” CENPEG said.

The group is pushing for reforms in the party-list system, starting with the strict enforcement of the original mandate of RA 7941, which envisions House representation for those “belonging to marginalized and under-represented sectors, organizations and parties, and who lack well-defined political constituencies…”

RA 7941 expressly prohibits from the party-list any “religious sect or denomination, organization or association, organized for religious purposes” – a provision that has been ignored, as seen in the membership of the current 19th Congress. CENPEG also wants political dynasties and big business proxies to be disqualified from the party-list.

The 1987 Constitution allocated one-half of the party-list seats to representatives of “labor, peasant, urban poor, indigenous cultural communities, women, youth, and such other sectors as may be provided by law, except the religious sector.”

Under the present system, however, this requirement has been set aside, and party-list groups can represent anything and everything, including the religious sector. Citing legislation, the Supreme Court has also ruled that nominees of party-list groups need not even belong to the sector sought to be represented. Meaning a billionaire can be the nominee of a group representing security guards, and a group can claim to represent all sectors of society.

The party-list system is a failed experiment in marginalized representation, and needs to be either scrapped or thoroughly overhauled. This, unfortunately, will require legislation. Voters must pick the candidates who can be counted on to push for the necessary reforms.