EDITORIAL - Travesty

When voters go to the polling precincts for the country’s first-ever fully automated elections, they will have to fill out the longest-ever ballot. The section that will take up the biggest space in the ballot is the one for party-list groups. As of yesterday, the number of groups accredited by the Commission on Elections stood at 187.

If survey results are accurate, all that space may simply be wasted as voters skip the choices for party-list representation. Pollster Pulse Asia, citing the results of a survey taken from Jan. 22 to 26, reported yesterday that seven out of 10 Filipinos were unaware of the party-list system.

The awareness level is the lowest since the period prior to the general elections in 2004, when 45 percent told a Pulse Asia poll that they were aware of the system that is supposed to give congressional representation to marginalized sectors. The number went up to 59 percent in April 2007, a few weeks before the midterm elections, before plunging to the current 31 percent.

The lack of awareness could be attributed to a lack of interest in a system that is not seen to be fulfilling its intended purpose. Look underneath the skirts of several party-list groups and you will find a major political party or religious organization that is using the party-list to promote its interests in Congress.

The public has also been dismayed by some of the individuals chosen by supposedly marginalized groups to represent them. Did the framers of the Constitution intend to have wealthy individuals represent marginal fisherfolk and peasants through the party-list?

Transparency could have helped improve public support for the system. But because voters are supposed to pick groups rather than individuals, the nation simply wakes up one day to see someone like retired military general Jovito Palparan back on the payroll of Juan de la Cruz, this time as an honorable member of Congress. Each party-list representative is entitled to all the perks enjoyed by regular congressmen, including the annual multimillion-peso pork barrel allocation.

Lawmakers, most of them belonging to political parties that benefit from having additional votes in Congress through front organizations, have not lifted a finger to make the party-list system achieve its original purpose. Given this situation, it is not surprising that public awareness of the party-list is slipping. The system has become a travesty and, for several of the party-list groups, a waste of public funds.