Party-list
Players in the 13th Congress
First
of two parts
Twenty-three
representatives of 14 party-list groups are expected to be present when
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo delivers her State of the Nation Address
in Congress later this month, at the formal opening of its session. Some
of them have filed bills including the repeal of the oil deregulation law
and legislated wage increase.
BY
ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat.com
Among
congressmen who would be present at the House of Representatives when
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo delivers her State of the Nation Address
(SONA) later this month are 23 representatives of 14 party-list groups.
They have already begun work.
Each
party-list group can gain a maximum of three congressional seats. Under
the law, a party-list group can gain a seat in Congress if it wins two
percent of the votes cast for all party-list groups.
The
party-list system is provided for by the 1987 Constitution of the
Philippines. It is supposed to be a mechanism for congressional
representation of poor and underrepresented sectors of Philippine society,
a counter-current to the dominance of elite politics in the present
electoral system.
The
first party-list elections were held in 1998.
The winners
The
party-list representatives in the 13th Congress are: Satur
Ocampo, Teddy Casiño, and Joel Virador of Bayan Muna (BM or People
First); Edgar Valdez, Ernesto Pablo, and Sunny Rose Madamba of the
Association of Philippine Electric Cooperatives (APEC); Etta Rosales,
Mario Aguja, and Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel of Akbayan!; Rene Velarde and
Hans Christian Señeres of Buhay Hayaan Yumabong (Buhay or Let Life Grow);
and Crispin Beltran and Rafael Mariano of Anakpawis (Toiling Masses);
Emmanuel
Joel Villanueva of Citizen's Battle Against Corruption (Cibac); Liza
Largoza-Maza of Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP); Renato Magtubo of the
Partido ng Manggagawa (PM or Worker’s Party); Benjamin Cruz of the Butil
(Grain) Farmers Party; Eulogio Magsaysay of the Alliance of Volunteer
Educators (AVE); Ernesto Gidaya of the Veterans Freedom Party (VFP);
Guillermo Cua of the Cooperative-National Confederation of Cooperatives
(Coop-Natcco); Florencio Noel of An Waray; Mujiv Hataman of Anak Mindanao
(Children of Mindanao), and Rodante Marcoleta of Alagad (literally,
Agent).
Representing
the poor
BM,
a consistent topnotcher in the party-list race (it first competed in the
2001 election), has established a reputation for taking the cudgels for
the basic masses (workers, peasants, and urban poor) and other oppressed
sections of Philippine society: women, children and youth, as well as
certain sections of the professional classes. The party-list group
represents the entire network of cause-oriented organizations under the
umbrella of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance).
Its three representatives are all noted leaders of the militant mass
movement.
BM
also distinguished itself for its sharp stands on issues related to
national sovereignty as well as campaigns against imperialist
globalization and corruption.
With
the success of BM in the 2001 polls, the cause-oriented movement decided
to maximize its presence in the House, and “branched out” by forming
five sister party-list groups that would specialize on issues of the basic
masses, women, youth, migrant workers, and the Moro people. Two of these,
Anakpawis and GWP, have been able to send their own representatives to the
13th Congress.
Anakpawis
will represent the basic masses and its representatives fittingly hail
directly from the grassroots sectors: Beltran, who represented BM together
with Ocampo in the 12th Congress, is a former taxi driver;
while Mariano used to be a farmer in Nueva Ecija, a province in Central
Luzon. The party-list group has filed three bills: one for the P125 ($2.23
based on a $1:P56 exchange rate) across-the-board wage hike; another for a
P3,000 ($53.57) salary increase for government employees; and a bill
repealing RA 8479 or the Downstream Oil Deregulation Act of 1998.
People’s
organizations have long been demanding wage increases for state and
private employees to enable them to cope with the rising cost of living
– which, based on an October 2003 study by the socio-economic think tank
IBON Foundation, is now pegged at P546 ($9.75) a day, equivalent to
P16,380 ($292.50) a month for a family of six or the average Filipino
family. IBON used data from the government’s National Wages and
Productivity Board in its study.
The
deregulation of the downstream oil industry, meanwhile, promised lower
prices of petroleum products. But oil prices have increased more than 60
times since 1998, severely displacing the livelihood of consumers. Critics
have argued that oil deregulation had given oil companies a free hand in
profiteering, including the overpricing of their products.
For
its part, GWP – represented by Liza Maza who also used to represent BM
– will focus on women’s and children’s rights and welfare, as well
as consumer issues. Maza, a long-time feminist leader, is known for her
bill against sex trafficking, which was passed into law during her term as
a BM representative. Bulatlat.com
Last
of two parts:
Party-list Groups and Arroyo: The Binding Links
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