People, not Duterte, will decide party-lists’ fate

It is the people, and not President Duterte, who will ultimately decide if the party-list system will get the axe, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said yesterday, somewhat taking the edge off the President’s statement over the weekend that he’d rather abolish party-list representation in Congress.

“Sa akin lamang... kung ’yun naman ang gugustuhin ng taong bayan ay siguro sundin natin yung tinig ng sambayanan dahil sa dulo ang bayan din ang magdedesisyon kung papaboran nila ang panukala ni Pangulong Duterte (For me... if it’s the will of the people, then we must follow it because in the end, it’s them who will ultimately decide if they would agree with President Duterte),” Alvarez said in a DZMM interview.

Alvarez, Duterte’s partymate in the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), said there would be referendum in the end to ratify what will have been discussed by the proposed Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass).

“Dahil nga po sa pag amyenda po, pagrebisa ng ating saligang batas ay sa dulo naman nito ang taong bayan ang maghuhusga... So pakinggan natin ang boses ng sambayanan (In amending or revising the Constitution, the people get to decide which changes will stick. So yes the voice of the people would be heard),” said Alvarez, who represents Davao del Norte.

Duterte reckoned that the party-list system has long been abused by the wealthy, particularly those who can’t win a district seat.

Duterte made the statement despite the fact that nearly 60 party-list solons are under the PDP-Laban led “Supermajority” coalition in the House of Representatives (HOR).

Reform, not abolish For Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Andres Bautista, he would rather that the party-list system in the country is reformed.

“I think it should be reformed. You know the saying that comes to mind: the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The concept behind the party-list system is good, the problem is in the implementation,” told the Manila Bulletin.

Bautista said there should be clarity if the partylist is for the underrepresented and marginalized or for everyone.

“It should be clear if the nominee has to belong to the partylist being represented,” he said.

The partylist, Bautista said should also be free from infiltration from nominees that are supposedly making a “mockery of the law”.

“It should not be used as a backdoor,” he said.

The poll chief stressed that the decision on whether to abolish or not the partylist system has to be made by the Executive and Legislative branches of government. (With a report from Leslie Ann G. Aquino)