New poll rules open door for more millionaires

MANILA, Philippines - Voters may see more millionaires and retired generals gunning for a seat in the House of Representatives in the 2016 polls as the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is set to relax its rules on the party-list system in accordance with a Supreme Court ruling.

Comelec acting Chairman Christian Robert Lim said the poll body would no longer do “automatic review” of party-list nominees based on the previous principle that the system is limited to marginalized and underprivileged sectors of society.

“We don’t have to do that anymore. It has been removed by the Supreme Court (SC) in its ruling on Aong Paglaum case…The SC really loosened it up,” he explained.

The SC ruled that Republic Act 7941 or the Party-List System Act does not require parties, organizations and sectors to be marginalized and under-represented to be accredited as party-lists.

The high court maintained that even advocates of the marginalized and under-represented sectors could become nominees.

The court decision was based on the consolidated petitions of 54 groups that Comelec disqualified in the 2013 elections for failure to show that they represented the marginalized sector, for lack of track records and for having nominees that did not belong to the sector that they seek to represent.

With the court ruling, Comelec’s efforts to purge bogus groups from the party-list system was dealt a severe blow.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said this means that when a group applies for accreditation, the poll body could only screen them against a basic checklist.

The checklist includes if the group’s constitutions does not promote violence or terrorism, existence, membership, headquarters and background.

Lim noted that since Comelec no longer needs extended time to screen the groups, they decided to move back the deadline for the filing of party-list groups’ petition for accreditation from March 30 to May 8 this year.

The Comelec has also resolved not to require the groups to include the list of their nominees when they file their application.

Despite the SC ruling, Comelec is hopeful that voters would be discerning in choosing their party-list groups.

“At the end of the day, it’s still the people who will decide. If they vote this party-list to office, then that is it,” Lim said.