If there is one thing that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is doing now that we have to give our two thumbs up to, it is the ongoing purge of the party-list groups.

Everybody and his mother knows that so many party-list groups were able to make it to the House of Representatives in the past even if they did not represent any marginalized sector.

At best, a handful of party-list groups performed admirably in the lower house of Congress, while the majority were little more than dead weight. At worst, the party listers had as their appointed representatives men and women who were related to traditional politicians who were still in power, thus expanding the power base of the entrenched political dynasties.

So much for the Anti-Dynasty laws that were proposed but never passed by past Congresses. This, despite the Philippine Constitution explicitly stating that dynasties should be banned.

Perhaps Comelec Commissioner Sixto Brillantes is right. He has been quoted as saying that the entire party-list system should be scrapped. This may seem like an extreme course of action, but there is much wisdom in it just the same.

There is nothing wrong with party-list representation per se, but it is more attuned to a federal parliamentary form of government. The present presidential republican form of government simply does not allow for easy co-existence with the party-list system. For one, senators are elected nationally. As such, they are supposed to represent all sectors, not excluding the marginalized. Members of the House of Representatives, meanwhile, are elected by the districts that they come from. They, too, are supposed to represent all the sectors within their districts, including and especially the marginalized.

The biggest reason for scrapping the party-list system is the failure of the various party-list representatives to alleviate the plight of their supposed constituencies. As a political experiment, the time has come to admit that the system has failed despite the good intentions of the learned political leaders who first broached the idea of party list representation.

It can be said that from inception, there was something inherently wrong in the system of electing party-list representatives.

A look at the names of the would-be party-listers tells us that there has always been a battle to come up with names or acronyms that either began with the letter ‘A’ or the number ‘1.’

This is because the Comelec opted to list down the would-be party-listers alphabetically, thereby giving undue advantage to anyone whose name was among the first on the list.

Sadly, a large chunk of the Philippine electorate still does not place a high value on their right of suffrage. As such, they allow themselves to vote carelessly, sometimes voting for party-list groups for no other reason than because they had nice sounding names.
 
Insufficient background checks
Past Comelec commissioners also allowed anyone and everyone claiming to represent a marginalized sector to run. Little if any background checking was done to verify that they were who they claimed to be. As a result, there were numerous millionaire-politicians who became congressmen and congresswomen representing the poorest sectors of society.

At least in next year’s elections, only qualified party-list organizations will seek the necessary votes that would entitle them to a seat or two in the lower house of Congress.

And while we salute the efforts of Mr. Brillantes to prevent party-list groups from seeking House seats, we cannot help but note that perhaps a small number of qualified organizations may have been mistakenly purged. In fact, the Supreme Court has called for the reinstatement of a handful of groups that the Comelec chief had earlier removed.

Mistakes were bound to be made by a poll chief who has a lot on his plate.

His bottom line has never changed. Brillantes has always committed himself to guaranteeing clean and honest midterm elections next year. As such, he has to defend the Comelec’s decision to purchase the PCOS machines used in the 2010 elections, despite questions over the software that runs the machines.

Brillantes also has to make sure that all the candidates follow the rules on election spending, knowing full well that the rules are broken more often than they are followed.

He also has to contend with the warlords, drug lords and gambling lords who all seek to alter the results of elections when their favored candidates seem headed for certain defeat.

On top of all these issues, there are the candidates for party-list representation.

Presuming that only the qualified groups are running in the 2013 elections, there is still no guarantee that they will play by the rules. But at least Mr. Brillantes has shown that he is taking a keen interest on the organizations. If they cannot be scrapped, the Comelec can at least assure the people that all party-list bets truly represent the marginalized sectors of Philippine society.