Many now look forward to the Commission on Elections’s final ruling on the cancellation of the Duterte Youth’s partylist registration, after the poll body’s second division released its decision against the controversial group linked to and named after the former president.

Once the decision becomes final, there should be no impediment for the proclamation of three more partylist representatives.

When that happens, it would be poetic justice. The rabid anti-communist Duterte Youth would have helped the Makabayan Bloc keep its three seats in Congress: ACT Teachers represented by Antonio Tinio, Kabataan represented by Renee Co, and Gabriela represented by Sarah Elago.

Everyone should read the Comelec second division’s ruling against Duterte Youth. It presents solid constitutional and legal bases for cancelling Duterte Youth’s partylist registration, and enumerates the group’s violations of the law.

New information has also reached the Comelec about the Duterte Youth’s use of a false surname for its first nominee. I have written about this extensively in Rappler and Bulatlat, where I point out what is arguably acts of material misrepresentation and perjury that are prohibited by our election laws.

Comelec Chair George Garcia has said that the Comelec Law Department has written Duterte Youth to explain why its first nominee used a false surname in the partylist group’s Certificate of Nomination, and Certificate of Acceptance of Nomination. Both documents were supposedly sworn before a notary public, as required by law.

Why the issue is important is not lost to ordinary folk who normally submit notarized or certified documents. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to get to know the background and records of partylist nominees if they are allowed to use assumed or false names. For example, how can the poll body verify that these nominees are not disqualified if they use a fake name?

The Comelec thus has a moral and legal duty to investigate this matter and perhaps include this in its final ruling, in order to save the partylist system from impostors.

The saga of the Duterte Youth is just one among many partylist problems that the Comelec must confront. There’s also the proliferation of other questionable partylist groups identified with government agencies and programs, Big Business interests, political dynasties, and traditional politicians. Their participation and in fact dominance of the partylist system make the public hate what is supposed to be good for them: a means for us to be more democratically and substantively represented in Congress.

It is thus unsurprising that cynics have called for the abolition of the partylist system. Such a move would be counterproductive and undemocratic by giving the underrepresented and marginalized zero chance of representation in Congress. Indeed, we should not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Instead of falling into cynicism, we should do everything to restore the partylist system to its constitutional mandate as a means of providing representation to the underrepresented and marginalized.

What could be restored are the 2001 decisions of the Comelec and the high court disqualifying Mamamayan Ayaw sa Droga and affirming the progressive nature of the partylist system — keeping traditional politicians, political dynasties and overrepresented and marginalizing forces out — as envisioned by the Constitution’s framers.

What could be kept is the formula for calculating seats in order to fill up all the House seats allotted for partylist representatives, as mandated by the Constitution.

If there is no substantive change, it may not be possible to roll out the red carpet for instance to a partylist representative from the LGBT, a sector fighting discrimination but whose pioneer partylist group Ang Ladlad itself became a victim of discrimination. It was banned in 2010 on the grounds of “immorality.”

There are other sectors that ought to get represented in Congress, but whose paths to Batasan look impossible in today’s partylist situation: consumers, commuters, health workers, farmers, fisherfolk, overseas Filipino workers, gig workers, national minorities, persons with disabilities, and small and medium scale entrepreneurs.

I’m quite sure we would rather have them represented in Congress than the many of the current crop whose alleged advocacies are suspect, and whose representatives hail from the rich and powerful.

Bayan Muna, which slayed MAD in 2001, can help lead this fight. By fighting the fakes infesting the partylist system, Bayan Muna can re-emerge as champion of representation for the marginalized and underrepresented.

For now, a final Comelec ruling cancelling Duterte Youth would be a bold step toward reforming the partylist system and restoring public trust in this constitutional experiment.