THE COUNTRY’S party-list system continues to be hijacked by the rich and powerful.
Around half of party-list groups are being used as a backdoor to further entrench their political and economic interests.
Election watchdog Kontra Daya reported that 55.13% of the 156 party-list groups vying for 63 seats in the House of Representatives for the 2025 polls “do not represent the marginalized and underrepresented” especially in the case of those linked with political clans and big businesses.
The party-list system was introduced in the 1987 Constitution and Republic Act 7941 (the Party-List Law) to provide a balance for locality-based lawmakers who are almost always elected on the basis of their popularity and the money that they release.
It is a proportional representation system to favor single-issue parties, and to allow underrepresented sectors to represent themselves in the law-making process.
The Constitution allots 20 percent Lower House membership for party-list nominees, wherein a party-list that receives at least 2% of the national vote is entitled to one seat in Congress, with an extra seat given for every additional 2% gained, capped at a maximum of three seats.
It was originally envisioned to focus on underrepresented community sectors or groups, including labor, peasant, urban poor, indigenous cultural, women, youth, and other such sectors as may be defined by law (except the religious sector).
However, its application changed when the Supreme Court issued a 2013 clarificatory decision noting that the party-list is a system of proportional representation open to various kinds of groups and parties, and not an exercise exclusive to marginalized sectors.
In a party-list election, it is the party-list organization as a whole that should be evaluated by the electorate, but it cannot be denied that the identity of the nominees remains a significant reference for voters. Oftentimes, voters elect a party-list based on political ads without actually knowing it or its platform.
Based on Kontra Daya’s monitoring, seven party-list groups are flagged for being linked to political clans, big businesses or the police/military – 4PS, ACT-CIS, Duterte Youth, Ako Bicol, FPJ Bantay Bayanihan, Tingog Sinirangan, and TGP.
Political dynasties appear to dominate 4PS (Abalos), ACT-CIS (Tulfo and Yap), FPJ Bantay
Bayan (Poe Llamanzares with Dolor and Paton families) and Tingog Sinirangan (Romualdez).
“Tingog Sinirangan deserves close scrutiny for being linked with the Romualdez clan to which the current House Speaker belongs. ACT-CIS is also an interesting case study of how the Tulfo political clan has managed to invade not just the Senate but also the House of Representatives, aside from an appointed Cabinet position,” Kontra Daya said.
Big business interests are apparent in Ako Bicol (Sunwest) and TGP (Teravera, contractor of Department of Public Works and Highways projects). Duterte Youth has military connections which explains its track record for red-tagging.
They are among the 86 party-list groups flagged by Kontra Daya.
Aside from the three reasons, the other grounds for flagging are cases connected to pork barrel / plunder / graft and corruption; dubious advocacy; and not enough information.
In a Separate opinion in the 2013 case of Atong Paglaum, Inc. v. Comelec (707 Phil. 454), my professor from the UP College of Law and Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen said that the party-list system aims to assist genuine political parties to evolve to enable true representation that will help achieve a “democratic and republican state.”
“The party-list system is an attempt to introduce a new system of politics in our country, one where voters choose platforms and principles primarily and candidate-nominees secondarily. As provided in the Constitution, the party-list system’s intentions are broader than simply to “ensure that those who are marginalized and represented become lawmakers themselves,” Leonen said,
Leonen explained that the party-list system was introduced to challenge the status quo. It could not have been intended to enhance and further entrench the same system.
“The party-list system assists genuine political parties to evolve. Genuine political parties enable true representation, and hence, provide the potential for us to realize a “democratic and republican state””.
Leonen further said, “In a sense, challenging the politics of personality by constitutionally entrenching the ability of political parties and organizations to instill party discipline can redound to the benefit of those who have been marginalized and underrepresented in the past. It encourages more collective action by the membership of the party and hence will reduce the possibility that the party be controlled only by a select few.”
Kontra Daya challenged the Commission on Elections explain why it continues to allow dubious groups to hijack the party-list system, depriving marginalized groups from having a voice at the Lower House.
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“Peyups” is the moniker of University of the Philippines.
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Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the seafarers’ division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan law offices. For comments, e-mail info@sapalovelez.com, or call 0908-8665786./PN
