As we all wait for the canvassing of votes for president and vice president, people are urged to be more vigilant than ever to make sure that the votes they cast for their preferred candidate will not be lost in the “cosmetic change” introduced by Smartmatic—presumably with the green light coming from the Commission on Elections. After all, the powers-that-be (or at least until June 30) have made no bones about using their position and resources to make sure that a particular candidate will not make it to the second highest position in the land—by hook or by crook.
Meantime, the 12 winners in the Senatorial race have been proclaimed, which will most likely shake up the Senate. Bets are now on as to who will be the next Senate President with odds makers saying it will be a toss-up between Koko Pimentel and Alan Peter Cayetano, although stoolies say Tito Sotto is also casting a moist eye on the position, while Frank Drilon will try to hold on.
The same goes for the Lower House where the race for the Speakership is on, although it’s almost a done deal with Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez a shoo-in, handpicked by president-elect Rodrigo Duterte. Curious developments are also happening with regard to the party list elections, where out of the 115 party list groups that participated in the May 9 elections, only 46 made it to the roster of winners. (That’s because some groups managed to get two or three seats.)
And here’s where things start to get interesting, because some of them are taking issue on the qualifications of the present crop of nominees for some of these winning party list groups. In fact, three of the new party list groups that won a seat in the House of Representatives are represented by relatives of well-known wealthy political families, notably in the provinces of Quezon and Sulu, and in Quezon City.
This is not the first time though that such howls of protest have been hurled against the party list system law and its long list of nominees. In the past, nominees were questioned because they did not belong to the sector they seek to represent.
Under the principle of representative democracy, our 29-year-old charter gives marginalized sectors a voice in law-making body, and obviously, the rule of thumb here is that nominees should belong to the marginalized sector they represent.
Unfortunately, many politicians know regard the party list election as a “revolving door” to give themselves access to political power. Even a winning party list nominee was unhappy by what he described as the “bastardization” of the party list law by political clans.
Of course, some bad eggs take advantage of the weaknesses in our law. But the presumption of regularity has it that some leaders are qualified to serve the sector they belong to—or their political advocacy benefits a marginalized sector they seek to represent.
In 2013, the Supreme Court ruled on the case of Atong Paglaum versus Commission on Elections where it laid down new parameters for the Comelec to follow in determining who may participate in the party list elections.
In that ruling, the High Court also prescribed that nominees of these sectoral parties or organizations must “either belong to the respective sectors or must have a track-record of advocacy for their respective sectors.” (Italics for emphasis.)
So, in case you are wondering why some party list lawmakers do not belong to the sector they are supposed to represent, it is probably due to that Court’s ruling that allows them to serve in Congress, at least until the next election in 2019.
Meantime, let’s enjoy watching how well they will do (if at all), or worse, shame themselves when the real task of passing a law challenges their competence and ability to meet the demands and expectations of a public office. But then again, thick hides and even thicker faces abound in the murky pool of politics, not minding in the least that the appropriate term for them is Party List Mis-Representative.
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