EDITORIAL - Set it aside for now

During a recent address to the people, President Rodrigo Duterte had this suggestion to the next president of the Philippines; do away with the partylist system.

“Itong partylist kailangang alisin na ito ng kung sinong magpresidente ngayon na papasok... Ako, I recommend the abolition of itong party-list. Ginagamit e,” President Duterte said in his regular Talk to the People aired last Thursday.

We agree with his proposal. But as opposed to totally eliminating it, we suggest to put the partylist system off for now and work on it to improve it before making it part of governance it again.

By “improving” we mean determining what groups can qualify to become a partylist and what cannot, and for good measure also who can represent a partylist and who cannot.

The thing is that the partylist system is actually a good idea that saw horrible execution. The intention is actually quite noble; equal representation for sectors that don’t have a voice in society but are actually big enough or important enough to affect it.

But this did not stop different kinds of interest groups, business owners, and made-up groups of people from coming out of the woodwork to take advantage of the situation. Many of them not even marginalized, many of them already adequately represented in Congress.

It doesn’t stop there, there are those who seek to represent groups they are actually not part of or totally have nothing to do with.

We won’t pretend to know their intentions. Perhaps they really do want to stand up for some people or issues that have nothing to do with them, but then again the pork barrel available for congressmen or congresswomen is also very juicy.

Now there are actually groups or sectors that need representation, but they are being drowned in a sea of voices, considering how many dozens of groups vied for representation during the last election.

Until the law is changed to define who is marginalized, or who don’t have adequate representation in Congress, what sectors qualify to have representation, and who can represent them, the partylist system should be set aside for now.