HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRIPE-VINE
(Part 2)
In last week’s column I made mention of the Manila Bulletin’s ongoing Matalinong Boto campaign against election-related violence, against fake news, and against mud-slinging and character assassination. I commented on how social media, with it’s lack of fact-checking or verifying posts, could be seen as one of the major culprits for the disinformation that spreads like wildfire. And the sad part is that with no watchdog or effective controls in sight, we’ll be seeing much more of this in the days leading up to the May elections.
One telltale sign of these posts is how the ‘author’ will first say that he or she heard this, and is just repeating it - a way to take the defensive position that they never claimed it as fact. But at long as the damage is done, they achieved their purpose. Sad.
But today, I’d like to talk about another perennial problem we face, and that’s the disinterest and apathy towards some of the major issues we face as part of the electorate. I’m referring to the party-list system, that some have called the most misused and abused aspect of our Philippine elections.
So some basic facts first, and before you raise your eyebrows, let’s realize that even I was surprised when I attended an afternoon with a party-list nominee. Surprised by how so many in her audience were not even aware that they could only vote for one party-list. A big number admitted that after shading the ballot for the elective positions, they randomly shade the party-list page, or ignore the pages completely - fazed by how many parties there are vying for our vote.
For 2025, there are around 68.6 million registered voters. In the 2022 elections, what resulted on the party-list side was that there were 55 winning parties, occupying the 62 seats allotted to the party list system under the 20 percent of Congressional seats rule. And this year, we’ll see no less than 155 party list groups joining the campaign trail.
When all the votes cast for the party list are counted, garnering two percent of that total number qualifies the party-list to one seat, with a party entitled to a maximum of three seats. And yes, this does result in a rather complicated process where it’s the party that one votes for, not the nominees.
For the framers of our 1987 Philippine Constitution, and Republic Act No. 7491, the Party-List Act of 1995, the intent was very clear - it was a reform measure meant to address the elite-dominated and winner takes all nature of the single member district electoral system that had existed, and had marginalized smaller groups and parties - and in 1998, our first batch of party list representatives were elected, with only 14 individuals sitting.
In 2013, our Supreme Court ruled that national and regional parties or organizations do not need to organize along sectoral lines and do not need to represent ‘any marginalized or under-represented sector’ to join the race. For some observers of our political landscape, this was the opening of the floodgates of opportunity, of the transformation of the party-list to a tool to perpetuate political dynasties and skirt the allowable consecutive terms rule.
It’s also given rise to the ‘poltical entrepreneurs’, who view their party-list’s nominees as commodities that can be traded for behind closed doors. And it’s hard to argue against the observations mentioned above when an analysis made by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism shows that 36 of the 55 winning parties of our current 19th Congress have at least one nominee from an established political family.
‘Intended to benefit those who have less in life’, and to ‘give the great masses of our people genuine hope and genuine power’ sounded noble and well-meaning in a 2001 decision penned by our Supreme Court, when it called for the party-list system to cater to the marginalized in the economic sense.
Whether there is any continuity from that 2001 decision to what was stated in the 2013 ruling is what perplexes me. But obviously, what we have now is the end result of these decisions, and the reality of how the situation can be taken advantage of by those who thrive in the political arena.
Is the party-list a back door for political dynasties to establish and perpetuate themselves? Is it a more cost-efficient way to acquire a seat in Congress? How do we identity those that genuinely represent a marginalized sector, or have a true advocacy? I think these are all questions we need to ask ourselves when we enter the polling booth come May 12.
To just ignore that the “power lust system” exists, is no longer a viable alternative or option. Even if we deem it a tool that’s being taken advantage of by the ‘establishment’ or the unscrupulous; to not raise our voices or simply ignoring the party list pages will do nothing for making the system work as it was originally intended to.