Party-lists. One can argue that there’s just too many of them. Too many, in fact, that they occupy an entire page of the ballot. And yet, of the gazillion party-lists registered in every poll since the passing of Republic Act (RA) 7941 in 1995 (although it was the 1987 Constitution that created the party-list system), each voter is only allowed to choose one. It is because of this, because of how the party-list system works, that a conscientious voter should carefully consider which to include in their ballots this coming May 9.
By definition, a party-list exists to represent a particular sector of society. These can include a political party, a duly registered organization, and a coalition of parties as defined by RA 7941, at the House of Representatives. Accordingly, a party-list wins a seat in the Lower House by garnering two percent of the total party-list votes. Simplifying the formula, a party-list may win up to three seats for getting six percent or more votes.
Without doing much arithmetic, there is a clear difference between how other representatives of the Lower House are elected—i.e., those who run as congressmen for districts or cities because they require a majority based on the total number of voters in their areas. Over the past elections, the number of participating party-lists have been fluctuating, reaching the highest total in 2010, when there were around 178 of them. In this year’s elections, 270 groups filed their certificates of candidacy and 177 of these made it to the final ballot.
For a spot where every voter can only choose one, that’s a lot of competing party-lists. It is not uncommon, therefore, for a voter to arrive at the polling station on the election day still undecided about which party-list to choose. Faced with a list of nearly 200 possible groups, many may choose to just wing it—write down whichever party-list sounds appealing enough or whichever catches their eye. This, of course, is not the intended effect the Commission on Elections had in mind in placing the party-list in the final page of the ballot. And knowing that party-list representatives receive nearly, if not the same budget as Lower House representatives of municipalities and cities, simply winging it shouldn’t be an option in choosing which party-list to support.
As much as people devote time and effort to get to know those who are aspiring for the country’s top government posts, every voter should also carefully consider which party-list to choose. This is not an issue when one is part of a sector a party-list represents. It’s even easier when one is a member of a party-list. For many Filipinos, however, the party-list system remains an almost alien concept, one that they are expected to include in their voting habits but have yet to truly internalize.
It is not yet too late to start considering which party-list deserves your vote this May. There is still time to go through the list of party-lists, which is available online, and check which among these best represents your interest as a citizen. After all, regardless of which party-list wins and how many seats they get in Congress for the next three years, one thing is for certain: They will be getting their budget from the taxpayer—from you.