Progressive groups protested President Duterte’s suggestion to lawmakers to scrap the party-list system by amending the 1987 Constitution as they called on the Senate to reject the move.
Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) chair Danilo Ramos said that Congress amending the Constitution to abolish the partylists won’t do the public any good because some marginalized sectors are represented through the party-list system.
“The party-list system was penetrated by known political dynasties and traditional political parties. It is unjust that the real representatives of marginalized sectors are being attacked outrightly by the regime in power,” he said in a statement.
The peasant leader noted the consistent tirades by Duterte against progressive partylists in the House of Representatives.
Duterte has repeatedly accused these party-list groups of being fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CCP) and its armed wing New People’s Army (NPA), but the Makabayan bloc denied the allegations.
Administration Senators Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa and Francis Tolentino filed their resolution calling for a constituent assembly (Con-ass) to introduce “limited amendments” to the 1987 Constitution.
The Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said the “fake and dummy” party-list groups in the House should be disqualified and barred from running in the 2022 elections instead.
“Duterte wants to disqualify the Makabayan bloc to diminish, and ultimately remove the opposition in the Lower (House),” Pamalakaya chair Fernando Hicap said in a separate statement.
Hicap, a former Anakpawis party-list representative, identified pro-administration partylists such as Duterte Youth, among others, as “worthless in legislation.”
Both KMP and Pamalakaya warned against any move to change the Constitution as the group believes lawmakers want to extend the term limit of officials.
“We dare the leadership of the Senate to reject any attempt for a constituent assembly because it is a complete turnaround of the Senate’s mandate of becoming a total independent branch,” Hicap said.