EDITORIAL - Sorting party-list mess needs balls

The Comelec appears to struggle mightily to cleanse the party-list system of unqualified organizations. But it only appears to struggle mightily. For in reality it is a walk in the park, the bogus parties being so obvious you can pluck them from trees.

But Comelec has to put up the appearance of struggling mightily to ward off suspicions the party-list fiasco was its own fault in the first place, which in fact it is. Had Comelec not flung the gates wide for every crasher to join the party, we would not have this mess today.

But Comelec did fling the gates wide open. As to why, we can only speculate. But flinging the gates wide open is not the same as going blind. As everyone filed in, Comelec saw exactly who had the tickets, and who merely smiled back with yellow teeth.

Given these circumstances, weeding out the crashers would have been easy. But that would mean ushering out even those who are not now supposed to be touched, something the Comelec is not prepared to do or bring itself about doing. It will also prove it made an error in judgment.

And that is why it must put on a show of seemingly agonizing over whom to eject from the party. It has to feign pain and reluctance as if the illegitimate really mattered, when all that mattered is protecting those who need to be protected, fake or not.

When a pig comes up to the gate dressed as a chicken, you know right away it is not a dog or a cat. Your problem is whether to stamp it in as a pig or as a chicken. But there is now such a howl over which is which that you cannot let on having let in one as the other, or vice versa.

So you start by giving each animal the look over. The problem is, the confounded animal stares back as either a pig or a chicken. How to tell them apart is precisely the dilemma Comelec pretends to face in dealing with the party-list mess, as if it is still about appearances.

Anyone, of course, can tell even with eyes closed if it is a pig or a chicken. If the eggs are outside, it is a pig. If they are inside, it is a chicken. It is now up to the Comelec, if it has the balls, to do the same with the party-list system. Just seize the truth where it is.