Senate Minority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III has formally sought to amend the country’s party-list system, arguing that it has long veered away from its original purpose of empowering the marginalized.
Through Senate Bill 192, Sotto is pushing for revisions to Republic Act 7941, or the Party-List System Act, to address what he described as years of exploitation and misrepresentation.
“Through the years, the interpretation of the law on party-list has expanded its qualification and has deviated from the intent of the framers of the 1987 Constitution, which is to truly represent the marginalized and the underrepresented,” Sotto said.
He stressed that the system has been “abused and used as a vehicle to pursue advocacies that are not for the best interest of the government,” warning that it has instead fostered “more inequality, the very evil that the framers of the Constitution sought to prevent.”
Under his proposal, party-list groups may lose their registration if nominees or members are proven not to belong to marginalized sectors, if they abandon representation of such sectors, or if they are caught engaging in acts contrary to national interest. The bill also flags misrepresentation of nominees as grounds for disqualification.
“Amid the many issues hounding government officials, it is high time to revisit the true purpose of the party-list system, whether these groups are genuinely representing the marginalized, or merely hiding behind the guise of doing so for personal or political gain,” Sotto added.
If passed, the measure would overhaul the mechanics of the party-list system in hopes of restoring what its framers envisioned nearly four decades ago.
