Over half of party-list groups in midterm polls do not represent poor - election watchdog

Metro Manila, Philippines - More than half of the party-list organizations participating in the May elections do not represent the poor and marginalized, with a number of them linked to political dynasties and business groups, an election watchdog said.

On Wednesday, Feb. 12, Kontra Daya released its study flagging 86 party-list groups over connections to political clans, businesses, police and military, as well those with cases of corruption, dubious advocacies, and inadequate information.

The Commission on Elections counts 155 party-list organizations in the midterm race. Kontra Daya identified 40 groups as linked to political dynasties, while 25 were linked to big businesses.

“Political dynasties appear to dominate 4PS (Abalos), ACT-CIS (Tulfo and Yap), FPJ Bantay Bayan (Poe Llamanzares with Dolor and Paton families) and Tingog Sinirangan (Romualdez). Big business interests are apparent in Ako Bicol (Sunwest) and TGP (Teravera; contractor of DPWH projects). Duterte Youth has military connections which explains its track record for red- tagging,” Kontra Daya said in a press statement.

“Based on Kontra Daya’s monitoring, there are cases of party-list nominees providing limited information in the forms they submitted to the Comelec. They did not provide specific details on the nature of their work, preferring to give only general details,” it added.

In 2013, a Supreme Court ruling expanded the scope of party-list groups, allowing those outside the marginalized and underrepresented sectors to participate in the elections, contrary to the law’s original intent.

Danilo Arao, Kontra Daya convenor, said this has affected the chances of groups representing the marginalized sector.

“Sila ang naisasantabi dahil wala silang pinansyal at teknikal na rekurso sa pangangampanya. Kaya…maraming mga naloko kasi maraming mga manloloko na hinijack at binastartadize ang ating partylist system,” he said in an interview.

[Translation: They are the ones who are sidelined because they lack the financial and technical resources for campaigning. That's why...many were deceived, as many hijacked and bastardized our party-list system]

Of the 86 flagged groups, seven were leading pre-election surveys, the poll watchdog said. These are:

+ 4PS

+ ACT-CIS

+ Duterte Youth

+ Ako Bicol

+ FPJ Bantay Bayanihan

+ Tingog Sinirangan

+ TGP

“This is a good opportunity to revisit and file a petition probably for review ng Supreme Court. Kasi malinaw naman iyong empirical data na ang naging resulta 2013 case nila ay iyong sitwasyon ngayon na talagang nababalahura o nababastos ang ating party-list system,” Arao said.

[Translation: This is a good opportunity to revisit and file a petition, probably for a review by the Supreme Court. Because the empirical data clearly shows that the result of their 2013 case has led to the situation we have now, where our party-list system is truly being undermined or disrespected.]

Arao said the screening process for party-list nominees should also be fixed.

“Kung milyon milyon o bilyon bilyon iyong capitalization mo kung may-ari ka ng korporasyon bakit mo sasabihin na para ikaw ay para sa manggagawa samantalang interes mo ay nasa ibang lugar naman?” he said as an example.

[Translation: If your capitalization is in the millions or billions and you own a corporation, why would you say you're for the workers when your interests lie elsewhere?]