Rep. Juan “Jackie” Ponce Enrile Jr. of Cagayan City District 1, urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to be “fair and consistent” in its task of accrediting and de-listing groups qualified to run under the “party-list” system.

“While everyone agree that it is about time to cleanse the party-list system of the rich and the powerful masquerading as ‘genuine’ representatives of our marginalized sectors, the Comelec’s effort leaves much to be desired and much to complain about. As it is, last week’s ‘massacre’ of the partylist rank includes the ‘guilty,’ those that raise suspicion and the ‘innocents’ as well,” Enrile told The Manila Times.

Enrile, a leading senatorial candidate under the United Nationalist Alliance, was referring to last week’s release by the Comelec of 37 party-list groups that it said cannot participate in next year’s poll exercise.

The list comprises the largest number of party-list groups that the poll body determined are no longer qualified to run for one reason or another.

In particular, Enrile cited the case of the ‘Butil Farmers Party’ that represents farmer and peasant interests in Congress. It has been an accredited party-list since the 1998 elections.

Another group, Binhi-Partido ng Magsasaka para sa Magsasaka, which was also previously accredited to represent farmers in Congress was also de-listed by the poll body.

“The Comelec can claim that it is doing a ‘great job’ in putting ‘sanity’ and credibility back in our party-list system but if we go by the track record of those it has included in its ‘hit list,’ it includes groups like Butil that has already proven its genuine concern for one of the most underrepresented sectors in our society, our farmers,” Enrile said.

Enrile also warned that unless the poll body “get its act together” in dealing with the party-list issue, it might be hobbled through long and tedious court litigation from performing its principal task, which is the conduct of an orderly and credible election.

“We cannot afford a ’50-50’ situation whereby half of the time of the Comelec is spent justifying its acts before the courts and the remaining half in overseeing the election that has always been problematic to begin with.

“It has other major tasks to accomplish and the cases being filed against it left and right, especially in the Supreme Court, are major distractions that give rise to suspicion on the Comelec’s true capabilities in delivering election results in a convincing manner,” Enrile said.