INQUIRER.net Eleksyon 2007

Bayan Muna: ‘Politics eating up party-list system’

Inquirer

Jocelyn Uy

MANILA, Philippines -- The party-list system is slowly being swallowed up by the traditional political system, leaders of the militant Bayan Muna party-list group said.

In an interview with Philippine Daily Inquirer editors over the weekend, House Deputy Minority leaders and Bayan Muna president Satur Ocampo said their strong showing in the 2004 elections and their vocal progressive stance in Congress has put the administration and other interest groups on alert about the party-list vote.

Ocampo said there may be fewer members of the “progressive bloc” in the coming Congress because the government not only campaigned vigorously against them but also fielded its own party-list fronts.

Ocampo also charged that “dagdag-bawas” (vote-padding and -shaving) operations were now focused more keenly on the party-list vote.

Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casiño, in an earlier interview, identified three prominent new players in the party-list race as the military, the religious sector and political operators allied with the government.

“They changed the entire landscape of the party-list election, where as before, it was only a race by [those representing] the marginalized sector,” Casiño told the Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net.

In the May 14 polls, former topnotcher Bayan Muna took the No. 2 slot to Buhay, an organization backed by the religious group El Shaddai. The group’s leader, Bro. Mike Velarde, had parlayed his endorsement of mainstream candidates from both the administration and the opposition into sample ballot for the party-list group it supported.

Other progressive party-list groups like Gabriela, Anakpawis and Akbayan are trailing behind lesser-known groups, some of which are purportedly fronting for the government.

Many traditional groups have now realized the potential of putting their own people in Congress through the party-list vote, Cariño said.

These organizations, which he claims are operated by administration allies, clearly indicate the government’s intent to “dominate the entire Congress.”

Some of the party-list groups suspected to be government fronts have been identified as Akbay Pinoy Overseas Inc. (APOI), Aksyon Sambayanan (Aksa), Babae Para sa Kaunlaran (Babae Ka), Barangay Association for National Advancement and Transparency (Banat), Bantay or the True Marcos Loyalist Association of the Philippines Inc., Kalahi Sectoral Party, Kasangga sa Kaunlaran Inc., Youth League for Peace Advancement (Lypad), Agbiang Timpuyong Ilocano Inc., Aging Pilipino Organization Inc. (Aging Pinoy), Biyaheng Pinoy and United Movement Against Drugs (Uni-MAD).

The majority of these supposed administration-backed groups may be nowhere near the Top 10, but they managed to “scatter” the votes, Casiño said.

Worried that the advocacy of party-list groups might be defeated should these organizations prevail, he said that “serious reforms” in the party-list system should be tackled in the next Congress.

“This is to prevent the traditional political system from eating up the party-list system,” he said.

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