This is my article in the January 11, 2012 edition of the Business Mirror.
As the March 30, 2012, deadline for the filing of petitions for party-list (PL) registration approaches, I thought it would be helpful to share a bit of information about how interested citizens can throw their hats into that particular political arena. I’m going to skip over some of the more obvious details, such as constitutional provisions, since I am operating under the assumption that those who are truly interested should have read up on those by now. Instead, I’ll focus on the more practical consideration.
Such as, how may a party, organization, or coalition participate in the PL elections? Registered PL organizations have to file what is called a Manifestation of Intention to participate in the party-list elections. This is essentially the PL equivalent of an individual certificate of candidacy, or COC. No period for this filing has yet been set, although it will typically coincide with the period for filing COCs. This year, with automation in the works for 2013, look for this period of filing to be set in the latter months of 2012.
Organizations that have not yet been registered, however, will have to file their petitions for registration—as I said—by March 30, 2012. This raises the next practical issue: What are the documents needed to support a petition for registration?
Apart from what is expected—the organization’s constitution and by-laws, its platform or program of government, and coalition agreements, if there are any—registration for the PL system requires that the organization seeking accreditation presents its list of officers and members, particularly showing that the majority of its membership belong to the marginalized and under-represented sector—or sectors—it seeks to represent. Most important, the organization must present a track-record summary showing that it has actually represented and, through concrete action, worked to uplift the marginalized and under-represented.
Unfortunately, this last requirement—despite its undeniable importance—is also the one that most organizations tend to ignore until the very last minute. I suppose in the rush to get their foot in the door, they sometimes forget that the PL system is not supposed to be about just politics but, at its root, about giving service to those who have fallen between the cracks.
Assuming all the requirements are in order, how is an organization to file its petition for registration? First and foremost, the petition for registration must be signed by the organization’s president or secretary-general. It can then be filed with the clerk of the Commission on Elections, at Comelec’s main office in Intramuros, Manila. For petitions involving a party with a national constituency, the petition must be filed in 25 copies; for those with a regional constituency, 12 copies will suffice. And of course, there will be filing fees involved.
Once the petition is filed, it falls to the clerk of the commission to determine if the petition is in due form and substance, as well as verify the accuracy of the allegations in the petition itself. The petition, together with the clerk’s findings, will be submitted to the commission within seven days. In the meantime, the gist of the petition needs to be published in two national newspapers, at the expense of the petitioner. The commission will then have to decide on the petition within the window prescribed by two deadlines. The first deadline is that the case should be decided in 15 days—counted from the date it was submitted for decision—to resolve the petition. However, in no case shall the decision come later than 120 days before the date of the elections.
Obviously a petition can be denied both motu proprio or upon the verified petition of any interested party, essentially on the same grounds that an individual candidate can be declared a nuisance, i.e., if the petition was filed to put the election process in mockery or disrepute; or if the petition was filed to cause confusion—arising out of a similarity of names, for instance—or if its shown that the petitioner had no bona fide intention to represent the marginalized or underrepresented sector it claims to be standing up for.
Now, apart from having a track record of helping the sectors it claims to represent, the organization seeking accreditation as a PL organization must also comply with constituency requirements. Put very simply, if an organization claims a “regional constituency,” this only means that it must have chapters or offices in a majority of the component subdivisions of that region. Thus, if the region consists of, for instance, five cities and six provinces, the party should have chapters in three cities and provincial offices in four provinces. The same principle holds for organizations claiming a “national constituency.” Bottom line, “majority” in this context, means a number higher than 50 percent.