55% of party-list groups don't represent marginalized sectors — Kontra Daya

More than half of the party-list organizations running in Eleksyon 2025 do not represent the marginalized sectors, an election watchdog said Wednesday.

According to a study by Kontra Daya, 55.13% or 86 of 156 party-list groups seeking seats in the House of Representatives do not represent the poor or the underrepresented.

Forty party-list groups have links to political clans, 25 have links to big businesses, 18 have police or military connections, seven have corruption cases, and 11 party-lists have dubious advocacies, Kontra Daya said.

Nine provided limited information in the forms they submitted to the Commission on Elections.

"They did not provide specific details on the nature of their work, preferring to give only general details," Kontra Daya said.

"It is also possible for members of political clans (including incumbent party-list representatives) to be listed not in the top three nominees but in the bottom numbers. This should be a reminder to the public to scrutinize all 10 party-list nominees and not just the three (i.e., maximum seats that party-list groups can get)," it added.

SC ruling

In 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that sectoral parties or organizations seeking accreditation under the party-list system may either be “marginalized and underrepresented” or lacking in “well-defined political constituencies.”

The high court said those who belong to marginalized and underrepresented sectors include labor, peasant, fisherfolk, urban poor, indigenous cultural communities, handicapped, veterans, and overseas workers.

Professionals, the elderly, women, and youth are the groups that lack "well-defined political constituencies,'' the SC said.

''The nominees of sectoral parties or organizations that represent the 'marginalized and underrepresented' or that represent those who lack 'well-defined political constituencies' either must belong to their respective sectors or must have a track record of advocacy for their respective sectors,'' the SC added.

National parties or organizations and regional parties or organizations may also participate in the party-list system, according to the decision.

Comelec

For the May 2025 midterm polls, the Comelec accredited 43 new party-lists.

"Ito po mababa na ito dahil 43 lang po. Kung sakali na hindi kami naging mapanuri, siguro yung 200 hindi na namin dinismiss. Sana in-accredit na lang namin para more or less meron tayong 300 na pagpipilian mahigit na mga party-lists," said Comelec Chairperson George Garcia.

(We only accredited 43 of the more than 200 applicants. There would have been around 300 party-list groups if we had accredited the other organizations.)

Meanwhile, the poll chief also urged the electorate to vote for party-lists "who truly represent" them.

"Sa bandang huli, sa mga mamamayan na lang tayo aasa na sila ay boboto ng tama at kung sino talaga ang nagrerepresenta ng sektor na kinabibilangan nila," he added.

(We are hoping that the public will vote wisely and support those that truly represent the sector they belong to.)

In April last year, Garcia suggested that Congress amend the Party-list Law (Republic Act 7941) to stop power brokers and political families from taking advantage of the law's weaknesses and excluding legitimate representatives of the marginalized groups.

“Kasi na-realize nila, bakit nga ba hindi, tayo na lang magpatakbo [ng party-list], kesa magsasama pa [ng ibang grupo para manalo]. At alam natin, kahit paano, may boto kasi sila. So iyong traditional party-list organizations, nawawala," he said.

(They realized, why do we need to tap allies from their ranks when we can run the party-list group ourselves? And we have to admit that they have the votes to pull it off. So those traditional party-list groups are eased out.)

''Of course, the Comelec can also be blamed, but the culprit is really the law. To date, [RA] 7941 is yet to be amended, that is why the Supreme Court is forced to make judicial legislation to supplement the lacking provisions of the law.''  —Sundy Locus/VBL, GMA Integrated News

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