'No more ayuda-sounding party-list groups'

After the May 12 midterm elections, party-list groups will no longer be allowed to have "ayuda-sounding" names, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Garcia said yesterday.

- — With Daphne Galvez

In an interview with "Storycon" on One News, Garcia said the Comelec would be stricter in its accreditation process for party-list groups to make sure they don't use misleading names to attract voters.

He noted that many party-list groups have taken names that sound like those of government assistance programs for the poor.

An example is the 4Ps party-list, which sounds like the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)'s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps.

"There are those who were accredited before we, in the present leadership, came. But surely, there will be no party-list names like that to be accredited and allowed. We will not allow it, even those names of television programs, telenovelas, etcetera," Garcia said when asked why some party-list had been allowed to use "ayuda-sounding" names.

Garcia said the Comelec can no longer stop the existing party-lists with misleading names because they are already accredited and their existence is legal.

"We can no longer run after them because they were accredited. They have the right to enter and therefore, we cannot run after them and tell them to change their party-lists' names. Some have already run for party-list in the past elections and they even got votes," Garcia said.

He also cited as example the case of MAD of actor Richard Gomez. Comelec managed to get pieces of evidence that the MAD and its nominee are receiving financial support from the government.