RECENT events and actions – or inactions – of certain party-list groups prompted a revisit of the call to purge the party-list from Congress.
We’re not saying we remove some people in Congress, shot them in the back and bury them in shallow graves in the hinterlands. The “purge” here is just a figure of speech but yes, we do want some groups of people removed from the party-list system in Congress.
The party-list system intension is noble. It aims to give representation in Congress to marginalized groups so their representatives can craft laws benefiting marginalized sectors.
Unfortunately, some groups use the party-lists system to get into Congress and use government resources to undermine the government. It is also public knowledge that these party-list groups are head-over-heels in love with the CPP/NPA/NDF that is hell-bent on overthrowing the government by armed insurgency.
And these party-list groups in Congress fancy themselves the Makabayan Bloc but are aptly called KABAG – an acronym for Kabataan, Anakpawis, Bayan Muna, Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), and Gabriela.
Fortunately for us, from six seats in the 18th Congress this Makabayan/KABAG was reduced to just three seats in the current 19th Congress.
Thanks largely to the Filipino people finally seeing through the lies and propaganda of the left and the Barangay Development Program and the Whole of Nation approach of the NTF-ELCAC.
Sen. Ronald dela Rosa has filed a measure that would allow the Commission on Elections to disqualify or refuse the application of a party-list group that participates in attempts to overthrow the government or is connected to the rebels.
In filing Senate Bill (SB) 201, Dela Rosa aims to add more grounds for the Comelec to cancel the registration of a party-list group.
On top of the existing grounds stated under the Republic Act (RA) No. 7941 or the Party-list System Act, the Comelec may also disqualify a group if “it seeks the participation of children, youth and members of other disadvantaged sectors in committing violent and unlawful acts”, the measure said.
Further, the poll body may choose to disqualify if the party-list group “directly or indirectly participates in acts detrimental to the best interest of the government, to overthrow the government or diminish its powers, or to be associated by any means to rebels or proscribed terrorist persons or groups under Republic Act No. 11479” or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020. (Manila Bulletin 8/5/2022)
If Senate Bill 201 becomes law we will finally be seeing an end to these opportunists in Congress who uses government resources to undermine the government under the guise of the Makabayan Bloc.
And in a press statement:
The Legal Cooperation Cluster (LCC) of the National Task Force To End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) stands firm in supporting the Vice President, NTF-ELCAC Co-Vice Chair, and Secretary of Education Sara Duterte in her resolute stance against the hypocrisy, fallacies, propaganda, and deceptions that are continuously trumpeted by the Alliance of Concerned Teacher Party-List (ACT).
?It is a glaring anomaly that despite being formally incorporated in the Philippine government as a party-list in the House of Representatives, ACT has consistently taken an antagonistic approach against the government of the Republic, especially the Department of Education (DEPED) and its Secretary. Rather than working hand-in-hand with the country’s education arm in the pursuit of genuinely serving the interest of its supposed constituents, ACT has instead embarked on wasting its energy and resources on vilifying the DedEd, the Vice President, and even the NTF-ELCAC.
Come to think of it, ACT party-list seems to be more preoccupied with “red tagging” and supporting the narrative of the CPP/NPA/NDF rather than plight and needs of schoolteachers.
By the way, they have an ingenious way of fund raising; teachers who are members of ACT are automatically deducted from their salaries the party-list’s obligatory tithes.
Meanwhile, a female student was assaulted, probably molested, recently inside the campus of the University of the Philippines in Diliman. Gabriela and Kabataan party-lists were strangely silent on this with nary a whimper.
Indeed, the epitome of hypocrisy./PN
