|
Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. on Monday said he has won
Chinese support for his proposal for state governments in the region
to finance political parties, a major initiative aimed at reducing
political corruption and bribery among parties and their candidates.
“I asked the Chinese leaders
that Asia’s political parties take common action in the Asian
Parliamentary Assembly, International Conference of Asian Political
Parties [ICAPP], and Asean Inter-Parliamentary Assembly to push the
subsidy proposal to reduce corruption and prevent intervention by
drug lords and gambling lords in elections,” de Venecia said.
De Venecia made the statement as
he concluded his six-day official visit to China, in meetings with
Chairman Wu Bangguo of the National People’s Congress and Premier
Wen Jiabao, winning high-level support for state subsidy through the
Communist Party of China.
De Venecia said state subsidy for
political parties is allowed in the United States and much of Europe
and Japan. China fully subsidizes the Communist party and eight
smaller parties. The Communist Party of China is one of the major
Asian parties of close to 100 political parties—both ruling and
opposition—that make up the ICAPP.
De Venecia also defended his
state-financing for political parties bill proposal, which was been
approved in the Lower House but failed to hurdle the Senate, saying
it will instill and strengthen party discipline and benefit
mainstream political parties including the opposition and the
party-list groups. Sen. Edgardo Angara, a proponent of the measure
in the Senate, also filed a similar measure in the Senate but it
also failed to gain approval.
The House leader pointed out his
proposed measure “will institutionalize state funding for
electoral campaigns and mandate public disclosure and audit of all
campaign expenditures.”
--Maricel V. Cruz
|
