Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Why some party list groups want to keep nominees's names secret

With help from the COMELEC, of course: From Rina Jimenez-David:

Indeed, the only reason I can think of that a party would want to conceal its list of nominees would be if they had a problem with the nominees themselves. Either one or all nominees don’t really belong to the sector or interest group they purport to represent, or they have something in their past that has to be kept secret, or they simply bought their way to a nomination or else created a party with no real constituency simply to win a seat in Congress.

Exactly. Once the nominees names are revealed, mare-research natin kung ano yung background nila. And the arroyo partylist fronts don't want that to happen.

Which of these reasons lies behind the decision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to keep the names of party-list nominees secret? And which party or parties indeed support this Comelec decision?

These partylist groups, perhaps?

Manuel Buencamino pens an open letter to Chairman Ben Abalos. Here's the part on the Party List issue:

Your response to the recent survey showing many Filipinos do not trust you was not surprising. What else could you say other than, “I cannot do anything about it. Some people no longer want to listen to your explanation. So you have to do your best.”

MalacaƱang is counting on you to do your best and explanations can only create problems.

For example, you didn’t have to explain why you decided to keep MalacaƱang’s party-list nominees secret. Mrs. Gloria Arroyo’s election lawyer, Romulo Macalintal, said no one could compel you to publish those names anyway.

Unfortunately, in your eagerness to appear aboveboard, you twisted the law. Your boy, Commissioner Resurrecion Borra, said, “We have discussed it thoroughly in the en banc and we have to follow the law.”

The truth is, as Mrs. Arroyo’s election lawyer pointed out, RA 7941, the Party-List Law, does not prohibit the publication of the names of party-list nominees. It only says that nominees’ names should not appear on the certified list of party-list organizations.

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