Risa Hontiveros

The Party-list system's absurdity

Atty. Oscar Tan discusses the impossibility of fulfilling the Constitutional mandate that 20 percent of the members of the House of Representatives should come from party-list representatives and gives an alternative formula from the one used today.

"A proper party-list formula need only fulfill two simple goals: 1) It must fill up 20 percent of House seats; and 2) Seat allocation must be proportional, including allocations to losing parties.

In this proposed formula, one selects a party, then divides each party’s votes by the chosen party’s votes. One then drops decimals from the resulting ratios, and assigns that many seats to each party, up to the three-seat maximum. If the total number of seats assigned exceeds 55, one chooses another party with less votes, and vice-versa."

I really can't understand how the COMELEC and the Supreme could have bungled this one. Personally, I think the mistaken notion that the party list should be limited to "under-represented" sectors of society is the root of all this stupidity. This notion led to:

1. limiting the number of seats a party-list party can get to 3 - this now limits the growth of a party-list party and will ensure that they cannot become a dominant party
2. banning "mainstream" parties from the party-list elections - which leads to a the absurd situation that "legitimate" party-list organizations are accusing the dominant parties of using proxy party-list organizations to be able to run, and at this moment, the ascendancy of parties affiliated with religious organizations.

The party-list could have led to various parties, with strong party loyalty. The mis-steps only led to our present situation.

TUTA vs GAGO

I heard this a couple of days ago from somebody as confused as I with the latest alliances in Philippine politics. He referred to the administration group as TUTA (Team Unity, Team Arroyo) and the opposition as GAGO (Grand Alliance of Genuine Opposition).

I think the renaming is so clever that I will henceforth use these terms when I refer to them.:)

AKBAYAN for Partylist

Vote AKBAYAN

Because Trapo Politics is Boring...

We are sick and tired of the recurring
lies, corruption and shady dealings.
We are already exhausted with the
monotony of cheating practiced by
consummate TRAPOs.

What we want is the excitement of honest
governance and accountability. What we want is
the thrill of meaningful change.

A vote for AKBAYAN is a vote for a
program-based political party gathering
its strength from an involved citizenry.

A vote for AKBAYAN is a vote against
personality-and-patronage-based
politics, which so characterizes
Philippine politics.

A vote for AKBAYAN will greatly
contribute in breaking the hold of
traditional politicians and the few
powerful who use the government to
advance their vested interests.

Do we need to say more?
VOTE AKBAYAN Party-list
Because TRAPO Politics is boring...

- Emmanuel Hizon