Regardless on which side of the political fence one sits in, the renewed call for the amendment of Republic Act No. 7941 or the Partylist System Act along with a proposed bill penalizing nuisance candidates should receive public support for all the right reasons.
In backing the proposal of Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner Rowena Guanzon to amend the partylist law, the Bukluran ng Manggawang Pilipino (BMP) echoed her observation that partylist representation had been exploited by political clans to expand their reach in Congress.
It’s not just the political clans who benefit from the partylist law. Even private sector groups like land developers have also tried to seek a seat in Congress even if they don’t constitute a majority in the country.
On the other side of the fence, the military’s claims that militant leftist groups elected to Congress are channeling their pork barrel to provide support to the communist rebels have yet to be fully investigated.
The partylist law was supposed to give flesh to former President Fidel V. Ramos’s call to legalize the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and his appeal to the communist rebels to lay down their arms and join in the electoral process.
His call went unheeded and still some militant groups either sympathetic to or linked by the military to the communist rebels have managed to win seats in Congress and joined in the national discourse and political process albeit with minimal success.
While this occurred, the partylist law which was supposed to give voice to society’s marginalized sectors was exploited during the Arroyo administration when political allies and even the former president’s son formed groups to run for and win seats in the Lower House.
Some of these so-called partylist groups were also beneficiaries of the pork barrel largesse received by alleged pork barrel queen Janet Lim Napoles, including one group that chose former Assistant Communications Secretary Mocha Uson as its candidate for next year’s midterm elections.
At the same time, a proposed Senate bill that would penalize nuisance candidates may sound appealing to a lot of voters tired of seeing some Filipinos justifying their reasons to run for national office by virtue of their claim to godhood or being the former boyfriend or girlfriend of a celebrity.
This bill along with an amendment to the partylist law are laudable measures that should, as with all proposed legislation, be scrutinized with a fine tooth comb in order to further refine and plug all holes in the country’s electoral system while ensuring access to those qualified to run for office even without the resources and privileges of the ruling few.
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