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More on BOGUS PARTY LIST

Scroll down for 4/9/07 update.......

In July 8, 2005 The House sub-committee on party-list system and sectoral representation has approved a measure seeking to ban bogus party list groups masquerading as marginalized and underrepresented sectors from participating in the elections.

I went to the Philippine Congress site to check on the status of the bill and found out there were different authored bill and has been consolidated as HB0578, the last activity is it is the business of the day in Nov. 27, 2006:

Philippines House of Representatives, 13th Congress, 1st Session

History of Bill


NO. HB05876

FULL TITLE : AN ACT AMENDING REPUBLIC ACT NO. 7941, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE 'PARTYLIST SYSTEM ACT'
SHORT TITLE : Amending Republic Act No. 7941, Otherwise Known as the 'Partylist System Act'
ABSTRACT : The bill seeks to facilitate the representation of the marginalized and underrepresented sectors in Congress through a more effective system of election of partylist representatives.
BY CONGRESSMAN/WOMAN MARCOS, IMEE R.
DATE FILED ON 2006-10-11
CO-AUTHORS:
BARINAGA, ROSELLER L.
VALDEZ, EDGAR L.
ERNESTO "ERNIE" C. PABLO
MADAMBA, SUNNY ROSE A.
OCAMPO, SATUR
TEODORO A. CASINO
VIRADOR, JOEL G.
BELTRAN, CRISPIN
MARIANO, RAFAEL V.
MAZA, LIZA
ROSALES, ETTA
MARIO "MAYONG" JOYO AGUJA
ANA THERESIA "RISA" HONTIVEROS-BARAQUEL
CUA, GUILLERMO P.
RENATO "KA RENE" B. MAGTUBO
CHAVEZ, LEONILA V.
MARCOLETA, RODANTE D.

REFERRAL ON 2006-10-12 TO THE COMMITTEE ON RULES
SIGNIFICANCE: NATIONAL
SUBJECT:POLITICAL PARTIES

DATE READ: 2006-10-12
COMMITTEE REPORT NO. 02023 submitted on 2006-10-11
SUBMITTED BY: SUFFRAGE AND ELECTORAL REFORMS
RECOMMENDATIONS: approval
SUBSTITUTED BILLS: HB00341, HB00409, HB02451, HB02734, HB03302, HB03474
DATE INCLUDED IN OB: 2006-10-12

DATE CALENDARED : 2006-11-27

Hopefully this will address the gray areas that create an opening for opportunist groups in maneuvering their way through the back door of Congress. It will help ensure that only those genuine party-list groups representing the marginalized will enter the House of Representatives, but until congress acts fast (like how they act swiftly without much delay in passing national budget) this will be a perennial problem every election time.

It seeks to disqualify sectoral parties organized, funded, or assisted by the government. Military, police-related organizations, security agency or a private armed group would also be barred from registering as a party.

Proof will be required of a political party that they have a constituency spreading over the geographical territory of at least a majority of the provinces or cities, comprising a region. Let’s hope that they come up with specific ratio or number lest some smart aleck goes around it again if ever this bill passes.

They are also aimed at increasing the present number of party list of 24 to 52 seats representing 20 percent of the total house membership. It will also seek to increase the present 3 seats allocation to 6 and 1.8 percent of the total votes garnered by a party list guarantees them a seat in congress.

The party list at this point in time is like a stinking shoes hanging in the air bastardized by pseudo marginalized party. In the meantime I have sent an email inquiry to the named authors above with email address in the Congress site………. let us see how they will respond or even respond at all.

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Update on BOGUS PARTY LIST

4/9/07

In a report by Erwin Oliva of Inquirer 4/02/07 the chairman of the House sub-committee on party list representation was denied access to the list of party list group nominees.

In a letter sent to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday, Akbayan Representative Loretta Ann Rosales said lawyer Alioden Dalaig, director of the poll body’s law department, claimed he "was inhibited" from releasing the documents with the party-list nominees ostensibly because it violated Section 7 of Republic Act 7941, also known as the Party-List System Act.

But the law states that while "the names of the party-list nominees shall not be shown on the certified list," it does not say the public has no right to access such information.

If Etta Rosales is denied access to information what more with the public? What is wrong with these Comelec people do they think they are in Fort Knox guarding the gold reserves? These are list of questionable if not bogus nominees with bogus intention of mis-representing marginalized sectors of society. In advance societies they have a law against fraud, in the Philippine I am wondering if there is an unwritten code on how to commit fraud when one is in position.

"The purpose for Section 7 is crystal clear, which I think any high school student can understand,” Rosales said. “It is intended to guide the voters in their choice of the party list group whose name they should write instead of the names of its nominees.”

“It is beyond logic that the names of the nominees should be kept clandestine, especially since the issue of violating the party list law and the 2001 Supreme Court ruling relates directly to the kind of nominees that had been chosen by questionable party list groups recently accredited," she said.

Despite numerous letters to the (out) law department of the Comelec on the advice of Abalos for access to the party-list nominees, Etta is getting nowhere. It appears that the request for the list was in preparation for the filing of formal complaint before the Comelec on this suspected dubious party list. No cooperation seems to be forthcoming and your guess is as good as mine…….. something smells fishy and only Comelec can do something so blatant as seen on their “model” operator errr commissioner Garci soon to be tongressman.

Meanwhile in another development Inquirer had bannered the story with “TO EXPOSE FAKE GROUPS, Comelec told to release party-list nominees” had another group Partido ng Manggagawa (Workers Party) asking for the same saying it will expose the “powers-that-be” and “vested interest” behind these FAKE groups.

In a statement, Gerry Rivera, vice-chairman and a nominee of Partido ng Manggagawa, said, “There is no rule or reason for the Comelec to keep it a secret except to protect the fake party-lists from open condemnation and public pressure. The lists of nominees are public documents and its public scrutiny flows from the logic of the Supreme Court landmark decision on the party-list system.”

Rivera cited the Supreme Court decision on Ang Bagong Bayani-OFW Party vs. Comelec where the high tribunal laid down an eight-point set of guidelines to screen the party-list groups and weed out the legitimate from the counterfeit.

He quotes the decision: “Sixth, the party must not only comply with the requirements of the law; its nominees must likewise do so… Seventh, not only the candidate party or organization must represent marginalized and underrepresented sectors; so also must its nominees. To repeat, under Section 2 of RA 7941, the nominees must be Filipino citizens ‘who belong to marginalized and underrepresented sectors, organizations, and parties.’”

Rivera said “trapos” (or traditional politicians) and “Malacanang stooges” are using the party-list system to sabotage it. “While the workers recognize that the party-list system is just a token concession to marginalized sectors, we will defend the beachhead that we have conquered in the enemy territory that is the elite-dominated Congress,” he said.

This Bastardization of the party list system has to stop, ignore this problem and this is what Leila Rispens-Noel from the Netherlands has to say:

Like the terrifying hydra in the Greek mythology, as we cut the heads of political bastardization, more new heads are coming out. It stinks. This is getting to be a bigger fight. The only thing we can do is to try to inform the people/electorate about this. We need the help of the mainstream media and the civil society, church groups, schools, etc.

Thanks for your blog ---- i-circulate ng husto. We should come up with DON’T VOTE THESE BOGUS PARTY LISTS CAMPAIGN!

I don’t know what else we can do about it.

Do people even care? Now in that same report instead of spending P50 million and up they now “only” spend 15 to P20 million, well what do you know? Even Party List political party a supposedly marginalized groups spending this amount of money is just unreal considering the numbing poverty that engulfs this nation. BOOOOH shame on you people…. Oh yeah, shaming dense people will just not cut it anymore, especially when you talk of hundreds of millions in unaccounted pork barrel and perks that goes with it……… having a thick skin is the name of the game.

Mr. Borra is such a stickler for rules; I am “honestly impressed” at his unflinching stance:

“We will only publish the names of the nominees 3 pm after [polling places close for] the May 14 elections,” election commissioner Resurreccion Borra said in a briefing Wednesday.

Borra said the decision not to disclose the list of nominees was made late Tuesday.

The poll official argued that Comelec should not publish the names of the nominees since “they're [party-lists] not yet sure to win.”

“It is premature for them to question it,” Borra referring to the clamor of the party-list Akbayan and other groups for the Comelec to publish the nominees’ names.

Nah, I don’t think so what he is doing is actually frustrating the people and the party list groups who wants to expose bogus party list hiding under their “formulated” rules that they “decided” kuno. If they are such a stickler for the rules and follow the laws to the letter what may I ask did they do exactly when their kulig errrr colleague operator errr commissioner Garci was in the thick of the election fraud scandal………. NOTHING, because according to them no case was filed (yeah they are right even possession of ugly face errr fake public document did not prosper in court) in court. Excuse me but don’t you guys police your own ranks? Maybe not huh, lest they accidentally arrest themselves altogether for allowing the circus to go on then no one will oversee the fraud errr election.

I am getting confused here, Mr. Borra is insisting that the nominees cannot be published but Akbayan needs the list for legal purposes (not for publication) because without said official list in the legal papers there is no basis for their disqualification petition. I say DOUBLE BOOOOH to Comelec and Mr. Borra, watch out folks something is cooking and they are not even from Macao.

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