6 groups certain to make party-list cut
MANILA, Philippines — Most representatives of the six leading party-list groups are either allies of the current or incoming administration, are related to well-known politicians, or are former politicians themselves.
Based on partial, unofficial results, ACT-CIS, 1-Rider, Tingog, 4Ps, Ako Bicol, and Sagip may each end up getting two to three seats in the House of Representatives.
ACT-CIS, which stands for Anti-Crime and Terrorism Community Involvement and Support, is backed by media personalities and brothers Erwin Tulfo and senator-elect Raffy Tulfo, staunch supporters of President Rodrigo Duterte.
The group’s nominees are Edvic Yap, brother of incumbent ACT-CIS Rep. Eric Yap; Raffy Tulfo’s wife, Jocelyn, and Jeffrey Soriano.
1-Rider will be represented by retired Police Col. Bonifacio Bosita while Tingog’s first nominee is former Leyte Rep. Yedda Romualdez, wife of reelected Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, who has been getting endorsements to become the next speaker of the House of Representatives. He is also a cousin of presumptive president Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Another party-list group topping the polls is 4Ps, whose first nominee is former Eastern Samar Rep. Marcelino Libanan, one of the accused in the fertilizer fund scam involving millions of pesos.
On the other hand, Ako Bicol is represented by Elizalde Co, owner of Sunwest Construction and Development Corp., while the first nominee of Sagip, which stands for Social Amelioration & Genuine Intervention on Poverty, is Rep. Rodante Marcoleta, a staunch ally of the Duterte administration who withdrew his Senate candidacy days before the May 9 elections.
For one political scientist, the party-list system has been abused and become “irrelevant,” since genuine sectoral representatives from the more “principled political parties” have been left out of contention.
“The fear here is that [they are] only using the party lists as additional efforts to retain the supermajority,” Prof. Maria Ela Atienza of the University of the Philippines’ political science department, told the Inquirer.
Atienza noted how the party-list groups supposed to represent marginalized sectors have been dominated by political clans and even wealthy personalities.
According to her, this has been a consistent trend since the 2019 midterm elections, which marked a “further deterioration” in party-list groups.
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