Backdoor politics

At no point in the history of Philippine politics when more than a thousand party-list groups had scrambled themselves to beat the deadline for the filing of the certificates of candidacy (COCs) at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) offices.

It is not surprising at all why some cause-oriented groups noticed this development from the sidelines.  And they came out with the figure and negative comments, criticizing the mushrooming of the party-list groups in the country. What is funny is that many of those nominees for the party-list groups do not belong to the category which they are supposed to represent. Instead, they are mere dummies of the organizations they wish to represent.

Kontra Daya leader Fr. Joe Dizon said in a broadcast interview that at least 60 percent of those who represent the party-list groups in Congress are wealthy. In fact, he was wondering why these people are in Congress right now.

Rep. Mikey Arroyo
Why did this happen? The answers to this question cropped up a long time ago but the government was too late to react. And it is only now, as the national election is closing in, that cause-oriented organizations begin to notice. They had pressured Comelec to immediately act. Consequently, the Comelec has exerted much efforts to properly screen party-list groups that wanted to file their COCs.
According to Comelec chair Sixto Brilliantes, there's no way the Comelec can entertain more party-list applicants who pretend they are bonafide political parties when in truth, they're not. This early, the Comelec already denied accreditation to at least 17 party-list organizations. This came to fore after the Comelec Commission En Banc found out about their backgrounds and decided to disqualify them outright.

Like the stand of the kontra Daya organization, the Comelec is aware that many of the party-list applicants are only being used by wealthy people to advance their interests. Political observers said that these nominees for the party-list groups are financierswhose only aspirations are to be elected into public office using
the backdoor.

In fact, reports said that the Comelec is considering initiating a move to disqualify Ang Galing Pinoy, a party-list group being represented by Rep. Mikey Arroyo, the eldest son of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Ang Galing Pinoy is an aggrupation of security guards across the Philippines. But Arroyo has never been a security guard all his life.

Comelec officials are saying that Rep. Arroyo is not supposed to be nominated to represent the security guards because he has never been one of them. There
are rumors that the Ang Galing Pinoy was formed to serve the Arroyo's political interests.

 We're just hoping that the Comelec will initiate more purging of the party-list group nominations next week.

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