There’s much talk about the existing partylist system. Many are saying the system is flawed in that it has become a backdoor of sorts for some politicians to get into Congress. There’s now even a list of partylist groups believed to be associated with members of the Arroyo family making the rounds on the net.
I think the partylist system needs to be improved if not dismissed altogether. Remember that attempt by a group of cockfighters to be recognized as a partylist? Manong Sabungero marginalized? What were they thinking? Good thing the Comelec had the good sense to dismiss their request for accreditation.
And what’s with those groups with names starting with the letter A or the number 1? While not really a big deal, this tactic to get top listing on the ballot certainly does nothing to boost the partylist system’s credibility.
Some people are suggesting that it would be better to just forgo voting for any partylist group. The alternative of course is to still vote for a group but only after careful study. As with choosing our next president, vice president, senator, congressman etcetera, etcetera, it would help to check the partylist groups’ respective platforms.
Careful examination of platforms should help us determine which groups are real and which are fake. Watch out for plagiarized platforms though.
Related to this, one partylist group has the following suggestion posted on their website:
Iba iba ang pamamaraan ng tao sa pagpili. Isang magandang suhestiyon ay ang pagtutok sa plataporma ng mga partylist. Pansinin ninyo kung ang plataporma ba ay puro pambobola lamang ang laman. Sabi nga ng ilang pilosopo, bilangin daw kung ilang beses nabanggit sa plataporma ang mga salitang “mahirap”, “kahirapan” at iba pang katagang patungkol dito. Kapag mas marami daw senyales na iyan nang walang pakundangang pambobola.
Magandang batayan din ang lebel ng lalim ng mga plataporma. masyado ba itong generalized. Tandaan kung ang partylist ay tila tumutugon sa lahat ng hinahanap ng mga tao malabong tunay na partylist ito na kumakatawan sa isang marginalized sector. Walang tunay na partylist na makakatugon sa lahat ng hinahanap ng tao. Marginalized sector nga ang kanilang kinakatawan kaya dapat ang mga plano rin nila ay limitado lamang sa mga isyung may kinalaman sa napili nilang sektor.
(I know I should translate this to English but I’m a little pressed for time. You can try using Google Translate instead but don’t expect the result to be any good. It’s funny at best.)
There is one other suggestion we definitely should take: Don’t vote for partylist groups with links to armed groups.
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