Nominees required to show proof they belong to partylists

Nominees of party-list groups will now be required to present proof that they “belong" to the marginalized sector they claim to represent. Under the Commission on Election’s (Comelec) Resolution 8807, party-list nominees are obliged to submit documentary evidence showing the nominees’ participation in projects advancing their sectors’ interests. Nominees can submit declarations, speeches, and written articles proving their advocacies as well as proof that they have been members of the organization at least 90 days before election day. The new guidelines also require nominees to be capable of contributing to the "formulation and enactment of appropriate legislation that will benefit the nation as a whole." Comelec chairman Jose Melo had earlier said that he personally wants nominees who can "properly represent" the sector in the House of Representative and who can translate their concerns into bills. "The track record of the party-list group will show and if you are really identified with the group in interests, in thinking, in habits, in status," said Comelec Law Department head Ferdinand Rafanan. "If you are invited by the fishermen, (it) doesn't follow that you are now a fisherman. If you are invited by the women, (it) doesn't follow that you are now a woman," he added. These requirements are an addition to the party-list nominee qualifications already required by the law. Nominees must be

• natural born citizens of the Philippines
• registered voters
• residents of the Philippines for at least one year
• able to read and write
• bona fide members of the party which they seek to represent for at least 90 days before the elections
• at least twenty-five years old on the day of the election

Also, if a nominee is from the youth sector, he must be at least 25 years old but not more than thirty 30 years of age on the day of the election. Under the resolution, nominees who fail these qualifications may be disqualified by the Commission on its own or if sought by a petitioner. Rafanan said that if nominees of a certain organization end up getting disqualified, then the party-list should also be delisted. "(If) they are not reps but mere impositions and impostors, then that party-list group is merely pretending," he said. The Comelec accredited 187 party-list organizations for the May automated polls. The deadline for the filing of nominees is on Friday. Presidential son’s party-list nomination questioned In the meantime, an election watchdog group questioned the nomination of presidential son Juan Miguel “Mikey" Arroyo as party-list representative of Ang Galing Pinoy, which claims to represent security guards. Kontradaya said that Arroyo was quoted as saying in February that he was being offered the nomination for partylist representative by different groups and that he has not decided which one to accept. “It was an admission at the time that Arroyo was not a member of any partylist group and thus would not be able to comply with the 90-day minimum membership rule," the group said in a statement. Section 9 of RA 7941 (Party-List Law) states that a nominee must have been a bonafide member of the party or organization he or she seeks to represent at least 90 days before the election, Grace Poe Llamanzares, Kontradaya convenor, said in a statement. “Does this mean that Mikey had already resigned from Kampi long ago?" asked Llamanzares. At the same time, Kontradaya also cited the disqualification of what it said was a more qualified nominee from another partylist group representing the urban poor. According to the group, it was “strange" that the Comelec disqualified the Filipinos for Peace Justice and Progress Movement (FPJPM) just because the income of one of its organizers did not reflect the income of its urban poor constituents. Llamanzares, daughter of the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. whose supporters organized themselves into the FPJPM, criticized the poll body for “not having any real constituency among the urban poor." The Comelec had questioned FPJPM member Boots Cadsawan’s monthly income of P30,000, saying that it was not reflective of one who belonged among the urban poor. Llmanazares said FPJPM won enough votes to secure a seat in the Lower House in 2007, and could have done so had it not been for Cadsawan’s disqualification. “Under the Supreme Court ruling in BANAT v. Comelec, FPJPM actually won a seat. The urban poor was actually telling all of us that they consider FPJPM to be their representative," Llamanzares said. Llamanzares pointed out that Cadsawan and the rest of the group’s members have continually helped their urban poor constituency, contrary to others who become “instant" nominees of other sectors. “[What Cadsawan and the rest of the FPJPM members are doing] is more in keeping with the party-list law’s objectives, compared to a traditional politician congressman who suddenly becomes the nominee of, say, security guards, or a cabinet secretary emerging as an instant nominee of tricycle and jeepney drivers," Llamanzares lamented. - RJAB Jr./JV, GMANews.TV