PM party-list names nominees, dares Comelec disqualification

Party-list group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) on Monday revealed its nominees for the May 14 polls, defying a planned Commission on Elections (Comelec) resolution barring such organizations from doing so. "It is bad enough that Comelec refuses to release the list of nominees but it is utterly worse when it bans party-list groups from revealing its nominees to the public," stated Gerry Rivera, first nominee of the Partido ng Manggagawa. "If the Comelec disqualifies us on the basis of its unreasonable resolution, then we will contest it up to the Supreme Court. It is the Comelec that will be bound up in contradictions if it disqualifies us for baring our nominees and allows fake party-lists to hide their nominees who do not represent the marginalized," Rivera added. Comelec Commissioner Resurreccion Borra told reporters last week that the poll body has “adopted" a resolution that bans disclosure of party-list nominees. He clarified that that this has yet to be “promulgated" by the six-member commission. Some organizations have demanded that the nominees of party-list groups be disclosed because some of these do not belong to the marginalized sectors they are supposed to represent. PM also slammed the Comelec’s statement that it will reveal party-list groups' nominees only after the close of polls on May 14. "It will be a fait accompli by then with the Comelec complicit in the sabotage of the party-list system by fake groups and Malacanang fronts," Rivera said. "Comelec has no more excuses not to act motu proprio since a complaint has been filed by the groups Urban Poor for Legal Reforms (UP-LR) and Bantay Repubic Act 7941 (named after the law that sets rules on the party-list system). It must now move expeditiously to disqualify the party-list groups themselves, not their nominees, if the latter do not represent the marginalized," Rivera said. Apart from Rivera, who is union president of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association, PM’s nominees are: Judy Ann Miranda, secretary-general of PM and former University of the Philippines student leader; Malou Parroco, vice-president of the union of the Central Negros Electric Cooperative; and Eliseo Alim, former union president of the DOLE Philippines box plant in South Cotabato. PM won one Congressional seat in the 2004 elections. A party-list group gains a seat in the House of Representatives if it gets at least 2 percent of votes cast for such organizations in the May 14 polls; two seats if at least 4 percent, and the maximum of three seats if at least 6 percent or more. “The gist of the resolution is under Republic Act 7941. The candidates are the organization, sector, party or coalition. The nominees are not candidates. We will publish the list of nominees after elections (at) 3 o’clock on election day because they are no longer candidates," Borra said. It is not yet clear if the coverage of the ban includes media reports. Borra also said that petitions seeking the disqualification of some party-list nominees are premature since because they have yet to be elected. “So long as these nominees are there, submitted after the manifestation to participate, and they are not elected…why will you ask for disqualification?," the Comelec official said. An urban poor organization and a poll watchdog earlier filed a joint petition before the Comelec seeking the disqualification of Biyaheng Pinoy nominees, which include Mandaluyong Vice Mayor Jesus Cruz and Dr Arsenio Abalos, brother of Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. The Urban Poor for Legal Reforms (UP-LR) and Bantay RA 7941 called the nomination of Cruz and Abalos to Biyaheng Pinoy, which is supposed to be a tricycle drivers’ organization, a “bastardization" of the party-list system. Members of the party-list group Akbayan on Wednesday held a picket in front of the Comelec office in Intramuros to demand that the poll body release the list of sectoral nominees. Akbayan party-list Representative Etta Rosales also earlier wrote the Comelec urging the disqualification of 11 party-list groups which she said were receiving support from Malacañang to help kill a possible impeachment bid against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. -GMANews.TV