Voice HE SAYS Aldrin Cardon 06/07/2010

Voice

HE SAYS Aldrin Cardon 06/07/2010 We can imagine the smirks in the faces of the many experts in European politics and other advanced democracies, from where the architects of our Constitution got the inspiration to favor proportional representation through the party-list system to help create a healthy, vibrant democracy, or so we hoped. The party-list aims to provide the marginal sector of society a strong voice in Congress with an allocation of 20 percent of the seats, a representation strong enough to make their representations heard under ideal circumstances, and pretty much similar to the models in 21 of 28 countries in Western Europe, among others, which use the party list system as a devise to provide a more accurate representation of parties, and greater likelihood of majority rule. But the Philippines’ gutter politics, mostly entrenched in base of dynastic patronage, had sure found more ways to circumvent laws than to skin a cat, that even the party-list system has found itself under the thumb of traditional politicians, big business and interest groups have prostituted our own party-list system. Even Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rene Sarmiento has called it flawed, and needing a thorough review so that possible amendments to Republic Act 7941, or the Party-list System Act, could be introduced to make clear which sectors are really marginalized and underrepresented. The Comelec itself has muddled the party-list issue when it disqualified parties like Magdalo (originally a group of soldiers charged for leading a mutiny against President Arroyo), Migrante (a Left group representing overseas contact workers), and Ang Ladlad (an amalgamation of third sex and gay liberation groups), with seeming haste. The Comelec even played the moral checker in its denial of Ang Ladlad with its seemingly accusatory rejection of its bid to seek representation, which the Supreme Court later overruled, but not after Ang Ladlad’s campaign train has already lost steam, it did not win a single seat in the next Congress. The Comelec, however, seems to favor party-lists with known connections to President Arroyo, and others which openly mock the spirit of the party-list system. Mikey Arroyo would soon reclaim a seat in Congress through Ang Galing Pinoy, a party which claims to represent security guards and tricycle drivers. Mike Velarde of El Shaddai openly campaigned and is listed as a fifth nominee for Buhay, even if RA 7941 explicitly bans religion from mixing it up with party-list politics. Darn, even the Constitution does not allow religious meddling in politics, or so we hoped.... MORE     Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100607com6.html

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