Youth group wants party list law amended
Gov’t meddling yields fewer marginalized groups in 14th Congress
The Kabataan Party called on lawmakers to amend the Party list law following the disappointing outcome of the 2007 elections that resulted to fewer marginalized groups clinching representation in the Lower House.
“The results of the elections only show how Malacanang was able to maximize the flaws of the party list law and the electoral system to disenfranchise parties in the very mechanism that was created to give representation to marginalized sectors,” Kabataan Party President Raymond Palatino said.
Palatino said the disenfranchisement of marginalized groups was aggravated further by the Commission on Elections’ decision to implement the Panganiban formula where only the number one party list will be given three seats.
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“The bastardization of the party list system warrants fundamental changes in the Party list law to protect it from being manipulated for political gains. The outcome of the elections should be an eye-opener to everyone how selfish political interests and ambitions have already penetrated it.”
He explained the entry of bogus partylist groups allegedly sponsored by Malacanang and local politicians and vote-padding favoring these groups had a big impact on the chances of Kabataan, Suara Bangsamoro and other sectoral parties of elderly, disabled and national minorities in meeting the two-percent threshold and clinching a seat in Congress. Militant party list groups and election watchdogs pegged the padded votes at 2 million.
“But what makes dagdag-bawas activities different in this party list race is that the padding of votes for certain groups were not actually intended to increase their chances to meet the threshold but merely to bloat the total number of party list votes,” he pointed out.
“This explains the huge increase in the threshold compared to the figures in 2004 elections. It made things more difficult for legitimate political and sectoral parties to win representation.” COMELEC initially pegged the two-percent threshold at 340,000 votes, up by almost 100,000 votes from the 254,000 threshold in the 2004 elections.
He added that the victory of some party list groups such as Abono and the sudden increase in the number of votes of YACAP (You Against Corruption and Poverty) and alleged government party lists in Mindanao, particularly after the contentious Maguindanao canvassing casts doubts over the credibility of the recent party list polls and COMELEC itself.
“What’s problematic about these results is most of these alleged government parties don’t have a clear constituency or base in these areas but they were able to corner in votes as big as 100,000 in just one province, edging out even Muslim and Mindanao-based party list groups. Abono, on the other hand, was able to get two-thirds of its votes in La Union and Pangasinan alone.” Abono allegedly was supported by the Ortega clan in La Union and Speaker Jose de Venecia.
“The discrepancies in the total number of votes cast and the number of registered voters in several areas in Mindanao and the unusual huge turnout for party list should be enough proof that irregularities did occur in these provinces last elections. Unfortunately, the COMELEC only turned a blind eye on these evidences.”
Palatino, however, expressed fears that moves to amend the Party list law might experience the same cold treatment in Congress.
“It would be more difficult to push for changes in the Party list law now after politicians have already seen how the party list system can be used to expand their influence and clinch more seats in the Lower House.”