EDITORIAL - Comelec to blame for partylist flop

The Commission on Elections is making a big fuss about questionable partylist groups, with chairman Sixto Brillantes singling out the “Ang Galing Pinoy” of Mikey Arroyo as being ready for the chopping block.

Not to defend Arroyo, but there is a perverted sense of wisdom in leading off Comelec’s supposed house-cleaning with Arroyo’s group because the mere mention of his name is certain to draw much of the public’s support in favor of the poll body.

The public is not finished hating the Arroyos. Not that Mikey’s group of security guards and drivers hasn’t bogus painted all over it, but tossing it to the dogs first is a neat way of deflecting attention away from Comelec’s own complicity in accrediting “Ang Galing Pinoy.”

If it is clear that Mikey Arroyo, the son of a sitting president at the time his group got Comelec accreditation, could not realistically represent a bunch of security guards and drivers, then why the heck was accreditation given to allow him to sit as its representative?

That it matters to be the son of a president does not hold water because the Comelec is supposed to be an independent constitutional body. Or is it? Besides, at the time accreditation was given, the president was already a virtual lameduck owing to her immense unpopularity.

“Ang Galing Pinoy” should never have been accredited. The fact that it got accredited is not its fault. The blame rests squarely with the Comelec. Call Mikey and his group anything you like, but it is unfair to blame it for an accreditation that was not its own to give.

To avoid accusations of singling out Mikey, the Comelec says it is also training its sights on other partylist groups whose representatives are all millionaires when in fact these groups are supposed to represent the poor and the marginalized.

Yet again, the question to ask is why did the Comelec allow these groups to be accredited in the first place? How can supposedly learned men take so long to see the subterfuge when the reality had long been apparent to even the most common of men?

The partylist system is being abused and Comelec cannot claim playing no part in such abuse. No group gains entry into the system without the say-so of Comelec. For it to act like the Avenging Angel is sheer hypocrisy. If the system laid a big fat egg, Comelec is the father.