Toothless

We have a constitutional body tasked to run elections.

- ANA MARIE PAMINTUAN

Like much of the dysfunctional state of affairs in our chaotic country, unfortunately, Congress and the judiciary have rendered the Commission on Elections largely toothless.

In this land of the comprehension-challenged, for example, the Supreme Court has ruled that there is no such thing as premature campaigning - even after aspirants have filed their certificates of candidacy and party-list groups have submitted their nominees, and before the start of the official campaign period.

Article IX of the Constitution, which created the constitutional commissions, opens with the provision that such bodies "shall be independent..."

That independence, however, is subject to intervention by the Supreme Court. And we all know how much the Comelec has been defanged by the SC. It's disheartening to hear Comelec Chairman George Garcia affirming how much the hands of the poll body have been tied.

But Garcia prefers to look on the bright side. He told "Storycon" on One News last Thursday that the dismaying state of elections and politics, as manifested in the kickoff of the 2025 races, can provide enough actionable cases for the SC that can pave the way for reforms.

The bastardized party-list system, for one, needs a thorough overhaul, he told us. Short of rewriting the Constitution to abolish the system, the Party-List Act can be amended. Or else the SC can be asked to clarify its rulings related to the party-list, which have added to the confusion and abuse of the system.

There must be clarity on what sectoral representation means exactly. In certain countries in Western Europe, parties that truly represent specific sectors and advocacies constitute the government.

The 1987 Constitution identified the marginalized sectors that must be represented in one-half of the party-list seats in Congress: "labor, peasant, urban poor, indigenous cultural communities, women, youth..."