Comelec to vet party-list groups, nominees

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Are multimillionaires representing the urban poor in Congress? Are other party-list groups represented by nominees who don’t belong in those groups?

The Commission on Elections will look into the statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) of party-list group nominees who are incumbent members of Congress, Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. said on Saturday.

Brillantes said this was part of the poll agency’s efforts at determining if the party-list groups really represented the marginalized sectors of society.

“Our problem here is if you are a multimillionaire but you are representing the urban poor then that’s a little bit doubtful,” Brillantes said.

“We will use (the SALN) as part (of the review), but that is not our main concern. Our main concern is [finding out if] the sectors that they represent are indeed marginalized and are underrepresented,” he said.

“If you will notice also we have yet to come out with a resolution on party-list accreditation. The reason for this is we don’t want to come out with a resolution until we have agreed on the standards that we will follow,” he said.

Brillantes said the Comelec would review the accreditation of the 127 party-list groups that had been previously approved as well as the applications of 172 new groups vying for party-list accreditation.

“In addition to that, we will also review the nominees. So we will take our time in reviewing this,” Brillantes said.

“We just want to have a common standard first between the First and Second Division so that there will be no conflict in the decisions,” he said.