UPDATED: Party-list groups as government front organizations

Sabi ng malacanang front orgs raw ng communist party at NPA ang Bayan muna at Gabriela.

Pero kung may front orgs ang mga commies, siguro naman may front orgs rin ang Arroyo administration.

From ABSCBN news:

(UPDATE) Akbayan eyes suit vs 11 'Palace-funded' party-list groups

Akbayan Rep. Loretta Ann "Etta" Rosales on Tuesday said she will seek legal action if the Commission on Elections fails to investigate 11 party-list groups allegedly being used as fronts by the Arroyo administration.

"That is supposed to be the job of COMELEC, to look for evidence about these alleged party-list groups. If nothing comes out of this, I think the next logical step is to really bring this to court," Rosales told DZMM.

The congresswoman said she is giving the COMELEC one day to decide on her appeal to investigate the groups. She earlier urged COMELEC to set up a special committee to study the nominees for party-list accreditation.

Rosales said COMELEC is in danger of repeating its mistakes in the 2001 elections when it accredited all party-list groups vying for a seat in the House of Representatives. She said the Supreme Court later disqualified several groups that ran in the party-list poll.

"The result was -- out of 15.5 million total votes for the party-lists, 8.5 million were removed therefore disenfranchising 8.5 million voters. This is a disservice, this is practically criminal what we will be doing to them," she said.

She said Akbayan is already discussing its next move if the COMELEC en banc will not approve her petition when it meets on Tuesday.

Among the party-list groups Rosales wants investigated is Biyaheng Pinoy founded and headed by Mandaluyong City Vice-Mayor Jesus Cruz.

Biyaheng Pinoy's alleged number one nominee is the COMELEC chairman's brother, Dr. Arsenio Abalos.

Aside from being the chairman's brother, Rosales also questioned Abalos's credentials to represent Biyaheng Pinoy, which is an association of tricycle drivers. She said Abalos is a medical doctor.

Other groups recommended by Rosales for investigation were Babae Ka! and Kasangga, which have alleged links with Malacañang’s Office of External Affairs; Akbay Pinoy, a member of the Malacañang-backed Sigaw ng Bayan People’s Initiative Group; Aksyon Sambayanan, allegedly a project of National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzalez; Agbiag! (Agbiag! Timpuyog Ilocano Inc.), whose secretary general is Marcelo Farinas II, the palace’s secretary for external affairs; Ahon Pinoy, headed by Dante “Klink” Ang II, the son of Dante Ang who heads the Commission on Filipino Overseas; and Aangat Tayo, headed by Executive Teddie Elson Rivera of the Philippine International Trading Corp.

PITC is a government-owned international trading company allegedly designated as a key agency in the implementation of Mrs. Arroyo’s 10-point agenda.

Other groups included in Rosales's petition are Aangat ang Kabuhayan, a group that has National Capital Region Police Office Superintendent Eduardo Octaviano as its first nominee; ANAD (Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy) whose nominee included Ret. Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan; and KAKUSA (Kapatiran ng mga Nakulong na Walang Sala) who will be represented by former Rep. Romeo Jalosjos.

On Monday, COMELEC Chairman Benjamin Abalos said the poll body cannot investigate party-list groups that have already been accredited by the commission.

Abalos said the COMELEC en banc decided based on evidence presented and "not on mere speculations or hearsay. He added that COMELEC looks "beyond personalities" but on the achievements and track record of groups asking for party-list accreditation.

More from the Inquirer:

MANILA, Philippines -- What does a doctor of medicine have to do with a group of tricycle drivers seeking representation in Congress?
And why was Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. quick to accredit the partylist group of his elder brother, Dr. Arsenio Abalos, despite the obvious questions regarding its legitimacy?

Akbayan party-list Representative Loretta Ann Rosales raised these two questions before the Comelec on Monday, in a bid to disqualify the Biyaheng Pinoy from the partylist elections.

"There's conflict of interest," Rosales told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in an interview on Monday. "My gosh, you are the chair of the Comelec... Jurisprudence itself says that nominees and leaders of a party-list organization must themselves be reflective of a marginalized (sector)."

Arsenio Abalos is the director of Biyaheng Pinoy, a group of tricycle drivers in Mandaluyong City where the Comelec chair lives and where he once served a mayor, according to Rosales. She said the group had been organized by the city's vice mayor.

"(A)re you to say that it is of no importance to you that a brother of no less than the chair of the Comelec is a high-ranking leader of a party-list group you recently accredited?" she asked in a letter to Abalos on Monday.

Rosales identified Biyaheng Pinoy as one of at least 11 party-list groups accredited by the Comelec despite their allegedly "dubious" backgrounds.

At least four of them -- Akbay Pinoy, Babae Ka, Aksyon Sambayanan, and Ang Kasangga -- were allegedly fronting for Sigaw ng Bayan, the Malacañang-backed group behind the failed plan to revise the Constitution via a signature campaign last year.

In her letter, Rosales cited a recent media interview by the Babae Ka spokesperson, who supposedly admitted that the group had been partly organized by Malacañang's Office of External Affairs (OEA).

Citing another media interview, she said no less than Assistant Secretary Marcelo Fariñas II of the OEA had admitted "helping" Agbiag, a regional party whose secretary general was said to be Fariñas himself.

Read the whole thing. I guess gaguhan na naman ang mangyayari sa eleksyon na ito.

So here again are the party list groups that are likely gov't fronts:

- Biyaheng Pinoy
- Babae Ka!
- Kasangga
- Akbay Pinoy
- Aksyon Sambayanan (AKSA)
- Ahon Pinoy
- Agbiag!
- Aangat Tayo
- Aangat Ating Kabuyahan (ANAK)
- ANAD
- KAKUSA

Aside from the 11 listed above, here are some of the other party lists I suspect are gov't fronts also.

- Bigkis Pinoy
- Buhay Hayaan Yumabong (BUHAY)

Read this too from the PCIJ.

Tribune: Comelec says can’t disqualify ‘gov’t-backed’ party-list bets

Previous:

- Sino ang mga party lists na dapat iboto

UPDATE: Ninez makes a good point:

Most of the party-listers approved by the Comelec were seen as being identified with the Arroyo government, with some even having government officers or their relatives behind these parties. Worse, there is no transparency in the Comelec when it refuses to disclose just who are its party nominees.

The Comelec claimed that the nominees’ identities should be kept secret from the public precisely because the principle of party- list categories is for voters to vote for the party, not the personality.

Yet this is illogical in the sense that the voter doesn’t quite know just what these parties under the party-list system stand for — and the only way these parties can be identified by the voters is through their nominees.

For instance, it is clear who are the nominees for Bayan Muna, Akbayan, Sanlakas, Gabriela, Anak Pawis, Buhay and Cibac, and because they are known, the voter can then make an intelligent choice on what the party intends to pursue, by way of legislation and even investigations.

But to just come around with names of the parties, without knowing just who are their nominees, one can have congressmen such as Rodante Marcoleta or other allies of Gloria who want to win a seat only to ensure that Gloria does not get impeached.

UPDATE: From the PDI editorial:

Part of the problem lies in an otherwise sensible principle. Party-list groups are not required to name their nominees, precisely because voters are supposed to vote for parties, not personalities.

But 12 years after the party-list law took effect, it is now clear that there is a need to revisit this principle. It has been used, often enough, to smuggle privileged political players into Congress, through the party-list back door.

If Akbayan party-list Rep. Etta Rosales is correct, the Arroyo administration is now in the middle of an attempt to smuggle in its own party-list representatives through that same door. Last week, she charged that the Comelec had accredited at least 11 suspect party-list groups, with varying degrees of connection to Malacañang or Palace officials. (At least one party has since been removed from the list of accredited groups.)

The object is clear: The administration has seen the potent role played by a bloc of like-minded party-list representatives in both attempts to impeach the President. Now it wants to fill the party-list seats with friendly bodies.

That, not to put too fine a point on it, is an abuse of the party-list system. One way to stop it is to make the list of nominees transparent; another is for the Comelec to act on the evidence, and disqualify those who pretend to live on the political margins.

More from PDI: Bona Fides

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) says it won’t publish a list of individuals who have been nominated to be party-list representatives on the specious grounds that to do so would subject the system to the politics of personality. The Comelec loftily claims the party-list system should be blind. When it comes to individuals who represent parties competing for party-list election, the public should be none the wiser, at least until election day. After election day, it would be different, the Comelec says. Then, and only then, will it dispose of questions concerning the qualifications of party-list nominees.

The Comelec revealed the nominees back in 2004. Now it says its previous decision was incorrect or, in the words of Commissioner Resurreccion Borra, “not a good precedent.” Borra adds that it would be “premature” to discuss who the individual nominees of the various parties are since none of them “have won yet.”

But that is precisely the point raised by the source of the Comelec’s latest headache: party-list groups contesting the participation of other parties in the exercise. According to such groups, some of their party-list opponents are nothing more than parties manufactured by the administration and other groups to infiltrate the party-list system.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE (4/16/07): PDI Editorial: Party Lists for sale

Neal Cruz says that the names of the party list nominees should be revealed.