Lawmaker accuses Comelec of ‘selective cleansing’

MANILA, Philippines - Rep. Agapito Guanlao of the Butil Farmers party-list yesterday accused the Commission on Elections (Comelec) of engaging in “selective cleansing” of party-list organizations.

“The Comelec’s disqualification of Butil and other party-list groups is whimsical, flawed and inconsistent. The Comelec invented its own definition of ‘marginalized,’ an act that belongs to the judiciary,” he said.

“While we support the weeding out of illegitimate groups, the commission should be fair, consistent and responsible in carrying out a purge,” he said.

He said there is no logic in the Comelec decision to disqualify Butil.

“How can they say that farmers are not marginalized? If farmers were not marginalized, who else would qualify? They ruled that farmers do not fall under the peasants’ category. Our members could not believe such a ruling because everybody knows that farmers are peasants,” Guanlao stressed.

“And if Comelec’s reasoning is that farmers’ cooperatives like Butil are not marginalized, how come other cooperatives were allowed to run as party-list organizations? Their ruling is so arbitrary,” he added.

He refused to name the other cooperatives that he claimed were allowed by the Comelec to participate in the party-list elections next year.

Butil, along with other groups disqualified by the Comelec, have sought relief from the Supreme Court (SC), which has stopped the poll body from enforcing its disqualification decisions.

Guanlao said the commission created a mess out of its “arbitrary purge” of party-list groups and it is now the SC that is cleaning it up.

He urged the House of Representatives to look into how the Comelec carried out such purge.  

The disqualified party-list organizations included Ako Bicol, which topped the party-list election in May 2010. Ako Bicol is the only group that has three representatives in the House. 

‘Wait for SC decision’

Meanwhile, Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said yesterday that representatives of disqualified party-list organizations should just wait for the SC decision on petitions questioning their exclusion.

“They should realize that it is now up to SC so why investigate? To show that we committed a mistake (in disqualifying them)? What if SC sustains our decision?” Brillantes asked.

The poll chief made the statement in reaction to reports that Guanlao would be seeking a congressional inquiry into the Comelec’s purging of party-list organizations.

The Comelec disqualified 178 groups but 33 of them filed an appeal with the SC.

Brillantes maintained that the Comelec had followed judicial process in deciding the fate of party-list groups. – With Sheila Crisostomo