Senate panels OK 'anti-balimbing' bill

Two Senate panels have endorsed a bill seeking to create a state subsidy fund for political parties and penalize political turncoats.

 

Under Senate Committee Report 164, the Senate committees on finance and constitutional amendments, revision of codes, and laws have endorsed for plenary action Senate Bill 3214 or the Political Party Development Act.

 

SB 3142 seeks to penalize political turncoats, or those who switched party affiliation after being nominated by a party, with:

 

 

Aside from penalizing political turncoats, the bill also seeks to establish a state subsidy fund for the augmentation of the operating funds of political parties. It said the fund shall be used for "party development" and campaign expenditures.

 

However, the measure said parties may still accept voluntary contributions, as long as they do not go beyond P100,000 from "natural persons" and P1,000,000 from "juridical persons." Businessdictionary.com defines a juridical person as an "entity (such as a firm) other than a natural person (human being) created by law and recognized as a legal entity having distinct identity, legal personality, and duties and rights. Also called artificial person, juridical entity, juristic person, or legal person."

 

The measure said the Commission on Audit shall examine the financial reports of the parties and the use of their state subsidy fund.

 

It said failure to comply with disclosure and reporting requirements shall result in the party's disqualification from receiving its share in the state subsidy fund and forfeiture of all the rights and privileges under the same bill.

 

On the other hand, candidates who shall violate any of the bill's provisions shall be punished with imprisonment of not less than six years but not more than 12 years or a fine ranging from P50,000 to P500,000. He or she shall also be disqualified from holding public office.

 

Parties who violate any of the same provisions shall also be made to pay a fine of not less than P100,000 but not more than P1,000,000.

 

A total of 17 senators signed the committee report, including Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Edgardo Angara, Panfilo Lacson, Lito Lapid, Antonio Trillanes IV, Francis Pangilinan, Francis Escudero, Gregorio Honasan II, Loren Legarda, Sergio Osmeña III, Joker Arroyo, Pia Cayetano, Koko Pimentel III, Jinggoy Estrada, Vicente Sotto III, and Alan Peter Cayetano. 'Serious reservations'

 

Several of the lawmakers expressed the intention to amend or interpellate on the bill.  However, only Osmeña expressed "serious reservations."

 

"Kalokohan yun. Lahat ng political parties, halos lahat are just political cliques. Lahat naman sila nagpapalitan... there's no difference. So why are you preventing something that is not a crime?" Osmeña told reporters in an interview on Tuesday.

 

"What difference does it make in Congress? You will penalize [a person] for going from LP to Nacionalista? Why? I don't understand that," he added.

 

The senator likewise said that the reason "those people" are pushing for the passage of SB 3142 is because they are "already in control of a party [and want to] keep you captive."

 

"Kaya ayoko mag-join ng party...kaya independent ako. So can you blame me? Everybody will turn independent after that," he said.

 

The authors of the bill are Senators Angara, Estrada, Santiago and Franklin Drilon. — RSJ, GMA News