Tricycle driver files disqualification case vs Mikey Arroyo

Even a member of the marginalized sector that former presidential son Mikey Arroyo supposedly represents in the House of Representatives wants him disqualified. On Thursday, Danilo Antipasado, a tricycle driver from Caloocan City, asked the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) to remove Ang Galing Pinoy (AGP) as one of the party-list organizations and disallow its nominee, Arroyo, from sitting as a member of the House. Antipasado was accompanied by Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares and security guards Rowell Aggabao Pino and Ronald Estrella in filing his 18-page petition with HRET. Pino and Estrella earlier planned to be Antipasado's co-petitioners, but backed out due to the high cost of filing — P10,000 filing fee and P150,000 docket fee. AGP also claims to represent security guards in Congress. Antipasado said Arroyo is not eligible and not qualified to sit as representative of AGP as he is a scion of the wealthy Macapagal and Arroyo families. In his petition, Antipasado said the decision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to allow Arroyo to represent tricycle drivers and security guards was damaging not only to the party-list system, “but also the interest of the marginalized and underrepresented." Antipasado, who claims to earn P200 a day, noted that aside from being a member of a powerful clan, Arroyo is also a wealthy individual whose income and assets are way beyond the income and assets of the marginalized and underrepresented. “Clearly his income is hundreds of times larger than any of the marginalized and underrepresented sectors," he said, adding that Arroyo is neither a tricycle driver nor a security guard “and therefore cannot claim to truly represent them in Congress." He said the party-list law and the Constitution, as interpreted and decided by the Supreme Court, require that a nominee must belong to the marginalized and underrepresented sector. Antipasado also said Arroyo was not a member of AGP at least 90 days before the May 10, 2010 elections, citing newspaper reports that as late as February 18, the lawmaker was still choosing which party-list group he will join. Antipasado said Arroyo was a member of Lakas-Kampi and AGP, which is disallowed under the party-list law. He further said AGP is not a party-list organization of the marginalized and underrepresented because majority of its nominees were rich and powerful public officials. Lubao Mayor Dennis Pineda and Bacolor Mayor Romeo Dungca were AGP’s second and third nominees, respectively. On Wednesday, former Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros filed a disqualification case against Arroyo before HRET. Colmenares and fellow Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño have likewise sought Arroyo’s disqualification with the Supreme Court. Arroyo had earlier described the disqualification cases against him as “harassment" by his political opponents. - KBK/JV, GMANews.TV