Press Release
November 24, 2009

Pia to Comelec: Let genuine party-list groups run,
stamp out bogus marginalized parties

Senator Pia S. Cayetano appealed to the leadership of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to seriously reconsider the delisting of the party-list group Migrante, whose accreditation the poll body had rejected on a questionable technicality.

"Instead of disallowing their participation in the party-list elections, the Comelec should be more circumspect in the case of genuine marginalized groups like Migrante which represents the interest of 10 million overseas Filipino workers and their families," said Cayetano, Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Social Justice.

In a controversial decision handed down earlier this month, the Comelec delisted Migrante saying that it had failed to garner at least two percent of party-list votes in two straight elections in 2004 and 2007.

Cayetano backed Migrante's appeal, saying the poll body had erred in counting the party's non-participation in the 2007 elections as failure to secure two percent of votes for the second time.

Citing Migrante's position, she said that while the group had failed to muster two percent when it first ran in 2004, it had duly notified the poll body of its non-participation in 2007 to allow the group time to consolidate its membership for the 2010 elections.

"The poll body should encourage the participation of marginalized sectors in the parliamentary arena instead of further marginalizing them," she added.

"In fact, the Comelec should be more wary of groups posing as marginalized representatives, but are actually adjuncts of powerful personalities and interest groups in the Arroyo regime. You will know who they really represent when their list of nominees is bared."

"It would be a great disservice to continuously allow dubious party-list representatives to get seats in Congress while denying genuine parties of even the chance to run in the elections. I hope that the disqualification of these groups has nothing to do with their critical stand against the government, because that would be an even greater disservice."

The lady senator had earlier criticized as "unconstitutional" the Comelec first division's decision which disqualified the gay group, Ang Ladlad, on grounds of immorality.

She also appealed on the poll body to seriously reconsider the denied applications of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) and Courage (Confederation for the Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees), a union of government employees.

"These groups represent big constituencies and definitely deserve to be represented in Congress. There are 1.5 million government employees, 600,000 of whom are public school teachers."

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