[Rear View] It is my celebration (and I will run if I need to)

It’s over and carried out, that week-long frenzy of candidates submitting their candidacy certificates for the midterm elections, the triennial ceremony of our supposedly vibrant democracy. 

And for the primary time since social media threw a monkey wrench into our values and behaviors, to not point out sleeping patterns, influencers — celebrities in their very own proper — are operating as candidates.

Considered one of them is Deo Balbuena, or Diwata. He has reached that stage of web fame that he now has his personal Wikipedia entry, the place he’s described as “a Filipino web character, meals vlogger, entrepreneur, and advocate inside the LGBTQ+ group.” The entry additionally mentions awards (“Most Sensational Media Character of the 12 months” for 2024 and “Social Media Influencer of the 12 months”) and a filmography (for his cameo look on the TV sequence “Batang Quiapo”). 

For the clueless, he’s well-known, or notorious, relying on the scale of your pockets and style buds, for his cheapo pares (braised beef stew), served with garlic rice and clear soup. 

Balbuena is the nominee of a party-list representing distributors. Is sensible on the floor, however he isn’t the primary nominee (he’s the fourth). The primary nominee who will get a seat in Congress ought to the celebration meet the minimal vote threshold is claimed to be a big-time contractor of the Division of Public Works and Highways, which is stretching the definition of merchandising a bit too far. 

‘Instrument for social justice’

There was once a time when “party-list” was synonymous with sectoral teams who acted as gadflies to whoever sat in Malacañang, their presence within the hallowed halls of the Batasang Pambansa an compulsory nod to the Structure.

The inclusion of party-list teams in Congress is among the distinctive options of the 1987 Structure, an affirmation of “individuals empowerment” by way of illustration within the legislature. Throughout its early interval, the party-list system was seen as opening a whole world of prospects for issues-based, not personality-based or machinery-based, campaigning, and significant social laws.

In 2001, the Supreme Court docket, deciding on certainly one of a number of petitions to make clear the party-list regulation, went so far as hailing the party-list system as a “social justice software.” Not solely would it not result in legal guidelines that may profit “the good plenty who’ve much less in life,” the excessive courtroom stated, however it will additionally produce citizen-legislators “empowered to take part immediately within the enactment of legal guidelines designed to learn them.” Amen to that.

Reversal

However in 2013, the Excessive Court docket, in what’s extensively considered a reversal of its earlier ruling, stated that party-list teams shouldn’t be unique to marginalized or unrepresented sectors.

“It’s adequate,” stated the justices, “that the political celebration consists of residents who advocate the identical ideology or platform, or the identical governance rules and insurance policies no matter their financial standing as residents.”

The choice opened the floodgates to party-lists of divergent persuasions and advocacies. From 123 in 1998, the quantity grew to 134 party-list teams accredited by the ballot physique for the 2019 midterm elections. In 2022, that quantity went as much as 173, however solely 55 received seats in Congress. For the 2025 midterms, the Fee on Elections (Comelec) stated a complete of 190 party-lists are vying for congressional seats. 

The composition, complexion, and clout of party-list teams and their representatives additionally modified dramatically.

You now have members of political clans, businessmen, professionals, pastors, retired police and army officers, to call just a few, serving as party-list representatives. You have got teams claiming to be advocates of well being and schooling, agriculture, cheaper electrical energy, and provincial growth; anti-corruption fighters, protectors of the setting; champions of senior residents, the disabled, firemen, midwives, LPG sellers, bike riders, domestics, solo dad and mom, development employees, authorities pensioners, safety guards, Ilocanos, Bikolanos, Visayans, Warays, Ilonggos, and Tausugs. Whew. And that’s only for starters. 

In a good struggle for nationwide votes (party-list teams are elected nationally), the competing organizations have copied the marketing campaign template of senatorial candidates. They place political commercials on radio and tv, faucet celebrities as endorsers or nominees, and take care of native politicians and energy brokers for a slice of votes of their respective turf. A few of these events have cash to burn, spending as a lot as or much more than senatorial candidates, elevating speculations on the true supply of their funding and the pursuits they actually signify. 

Transformation

Prior to now, party-list representatives have been handled as second class members of the Home. However over time, a few of them have snagged juicy positions, turning into energy facilities themselves. Most of them align with the bulk, supporting payments and insurance policies of the ruling administration. Perks and political pursuits, not the advocacies or the welfare of the sectors they declare to signify, typically dictate their voting habits.

How else may one justify the help given by some party-list teams to extrajudicial killings, which goal marginalized residents, throughout the Duterte administration, or the closure of ABS-CBN?

The Comelec says it favors amendments to the party-list regulation to outline the precise sectors that ought to be represented in Congress. The Structure really identifies these sectors: “labor, peasant, city poor, indigenous cultural communities, ladies and youth.” The spiritual sector is excluded from taking part. The remainder of the sectors it left to Congress to determine. Senator Koko Pimentel, now operating for a Home seat, shares the place of Comelec. He additionally desires to reform the party-list system to cease political clans from utilizing it to broaden their energy.  

However don’t get your hopes up. Given the present composition of Congress, I’ll wager you a bowl of cheapo Diwata pares: that invoice received’t even hurdle committee stage. – Rappler.com

Joey Salgado is a former journalist, and a authorities and political communications practitioner. He served as spokesperson for former vice chairman Jejomar Binay.