MANILA, Philippines?You are not like me at all.
An honest-to-goodness tricycle driver yesterday sought the ouster of Juan Miguel ?Mikey? Arroyo as the nominee of a party-list group that claims to represent tricycle drivers and security guards in Congress.
Danilo Antipasado, 34, who plies a route in Novaliches City, also asked the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) to disqualify the group itself, Ang Galing Pinoy, for being bogus.
Antipasado was backed by the militant party-list group Bayan Muna in filing his petition with the HRET.
In the petition, Antipasado said Arroyo should not sit in Congress because there was no way he could be considered as belonging to the sector he claims to represent.
?He is the scion of a rich and landed family of the Macapagal and Arroyo clans. He is a son of a (former) president of the republic and is himself a former vice governor of his province and a two-term congressman of his district,? according to Antipasado, who said he earns P200 a day.
In the last Congress, Arroyo was ranked the 22nd richest lawmaker in the House with a net worth of P101.347 million. He was also shown to have houses in Quezon City and Foster City in California.
Also, Antipasado said, Supreme Court decisions state the nominees of party-list groups should belong to the marginalized and underrepresented sectors they seek to represent in Congress.
Arroyo was not a member of Ang Galing Pinoy long enough to be its nominee, he said.
He said a nominee must be a member of a group at least 90 days before elections as required by law. But as of Feb. 18?less than 90 days before the May 10 polls?Arroyo was still deciding which party-list group to join as reported by the media, Antipasado said.
Arroyo was also still a district representative of Pampanga at the time and was therefore barred from running for a party-list seat, he said.
?Arroyo is the first incumbent district congressman to run under the party-list system. But this is not allowed by the party-list law and the Constitution,? Antipasado said.
?The Supreme Court reasoned that to allow those in the 80 percent of the House of Representatives to join in electing the 20 percent reserved for the party-list system is to defeat the party-list system itself,? he said.
Arroyo is also still a member of Lakas-Kampi-CMD, the party of his mother, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and thus is in violation of the law, Antipasado said.
?Dual allegiance is not allowed under the party-list law which requires a party-list representative to vacate his seat if he changes party affiliation,? he said.
Antipasado also trained his guns on Ang Galing Pinoy itself, saying the group did not really represent marginalized people.
?Majority of its nominees for the 2010 elections are rich and powerful public officials who cannot claim to be underrepresented,? he said.
Aside from Arroyo, the other nominees of Ang Galing Pinoy are former Lubao Mayor Dennis Pineda and former Bacolor Mayor Romeo Dungca, both in Pampanga.
Pineda is the son of incumbent Pampanga Gov. Lilia Pineda and alleged ?jueteng? lord Rodolfo ?Bong? Pineda.
The nominees also belong to Lakas-Kampi, Antipasado said, making AGP ?nothing more than a satellite? of the political party.
Antipasado?s is the second disqualification case filed against Arroyo in the HRET. The other day, former Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros sought Arroyo?s ouster, saying he did not submit the documentary requirements for running for party-list representative.