Party-list purge: 15 more dropped

MANILA, Philippines - A total of 15 party-list groups, including one claiming to represent wrongfully convicted prisoners, have been barred from joining the 2013 elections.

“We are canceling their accreditation. Therefore, they can no longer participate in the 2013 party-list elections,” Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. announced yesterday in a press briefing.

One of the disqualified party-list groups – Kapatiran ng mga Nakakulong na Walang Sala (KAKUSA) – has a sitting representative, Ranulfo Canonigo.

Of the 15 disqualified groups, 12 had accreditation although only KAKUSA won representation during the May 2010 polls. The rest were applying for accreditation.

KAKUSA is the sixth accredited party-list group with incumbent representatives to be barred from joining the 2013 polls.

Comelec’s latest ruling brought to 28 the total number of accredited party list groups not allowed to run next year.

The 11 other registered groups dropped from Comelec’s official list are Agri-Agra na Reporma para sa Magsasaka ng Pilipinas Movement (AGRI), Aksyon Magsasaka - Partido Tinig ng Masa (AKMA-PTM), Ako Agila Sa Nagkakaisang Magsasaka (AKO AGILA), Adhikain at Kilusan ng Ordinaryong Tao Para Sa Lupa Pabahay Hanapbuhay at Kaunlaran (AKO BAHAY), The True Marcos Loyalist For God, Country & People Association of the Phil., Inc., Pilipino Association For Country-Urban Poor Youth Advancement and Welfare (PACYAW), Pasang Masda Nationwide, Inc.(Pasang Masda), Coconut Farmers Association of Linamon Lanao Del Norte Inc. (COFA), Alliance For Rural And Agrarian Reconstruction Inc. (ARARO), Partido Katutubong Pilipino (KATUTUBO), and Pamilyang OFW-SME Network Foundation (OPO). The Comelec also rejected the application for accreditation of RAM Guardians, Alyansa para sa Demokrasya and Association of Airline and Airport Workers.

“The common denominator here is the ‘Ang Bagong Bayani’ ruling of the Supreme Court (SC), which we are adopting and we are using,” he said.

In the 2001 decision, SC clarified the rules on the party-list system by providing the Comelec with guidelines on the qualifications of parties and their nominees.

Brillantes reiterated that disqualified groups may appeal the Comelec’s decision before the SC.

The Comelec hopes to finish the processing and review of 87 remaining groups with existing accreditation within the month.

Akbayan questioned

More groups, meanwhile, are seeking the disqualification of party-list group Akbayan for its being supposedly a mainstream political party supporting the Aquino administration.

The latest batch of petitioners include former Dagupan-Lingayen Archbishop Oscar Cruz, Fr. Joe Dizon of Kontra Daya, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, Ugnayan ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura, and human rights watchdog Karapatan.

Akbayan has two incumbent representatives in the House: Walden Bello and Kaka Bag-ao. Its two previous representatives are Risa Hontiveros and Loretta Ann Rosales.

Hontiveros is an administration senatorial candidate in the May 2013 elections, while Rosales chairs the human rights commission.

Bello said their critics are just “envious” of Akbayan.

The latest petitioners said Akbayan, with several of its members holding government positions, is now a party in power and cannot claim to represent any marginal sector.

“It has significant influence in government and has undue advantage over others,” the group said in its 16-page petition with the Comelec.

Besides Rosales, they said other Akbayan members holding influential government jobs are Palace political adviser Ronald Llamas, his deputy Ibarra Gutierrez, National Anti-Poverty Commission chairman Joel Rocamora, and Angelina Ludovice-Katoh, a member of the Presidential Commission on Urban Poor.

They added that Rocamora, Gutierrez and Katoh are Akbayan nominees if the group wins three seats in next year’s polls.

They pointed out that the three nominees, together with other Akbayan members in government, would naturally promote the interest of their party.

These administration officials could be accused of using their positions and taxpayers’ money in promoting their party, they stressed.

Earlier, the Makabayan Coalition of former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo sought Akbayan’s disqualification on the same grounds.

Why drop Courage?

The militant Kilusang Mayo (KMU), for its part, is questioning the Comelec’s decision to disqualify Courage party-list from the 2013 polls.

“Courage party-list represents ordinary government employees whose oppressed plight is comparable to that of private sector workers. They may be in government but they are not the bosses who enjoy high salaries and call the shots,” KMU chairman Elmer Labog said.

Labog said Comelec’s argument that Courage was “overrepresented in government” and “not marginalized” applies not to the group but to Akbayan, whose officials are in high government positions. -With Mayen Jaymalin