Sotto seeks to overhaul ‘abused and used’ party-list system

National

FROM championing the disadvantaged to allegedly deepening inequality — the party-list system has strayed, and Senate Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III says it’s time for a reset.

Sotto has filed Senate Bill 192 seeking to amend Republic Act 7941, or the Party-List System Act.

He said the framework envisioned under the 1987 Constitution as a means to empower marginalized sectors has been misinterpreted over the years and is now vulnerable to abuse.

“The party-list system has also been abused and used as a vehicle to pursue advocacies that are not for the best interest of the government,” Sotto said in a Philstar report.

According to Sotto, the interpretation of qualifications for party-list groups has expanded far beyond the framers’ intent, allowing organizations that no longer truly represent marginalized communities to enter Congress.

He also pointed out that the system has been used to advance advocacies not aligned with the broader interest of government.

The proposed measure sets stricter grounds for disqualification of party-list groups, including cases where nominees or members are not from marginalized sectors, when organizations abandon such representation, or when they engage in activities contrary to government interests.

Misrepresentation of nominees would also be a basis for cancellation.

Sotto warned that instead of addressing underrepresentation, the current system has sometimes had the opposite effect.

“The current system has created more inequality, the very evil that the framers of the Constitution sought to prevent,” he said.

He added that with questions lingering over whether certain groups genuinely speak for disadvantaged communities, reform is overdue.

“Amid the many issues hounding government officials, it is high time to revisit the true purpose of the party-list system, whether these groups are genuinely representing the marginalized, or merely hiding behind the guise of doing so for personal or political gain,” Sotto said in the same report.(MyTVCebu)