Only 14 party-lists have so far been accredited to participate in the forthcoming 2025 National and Local elections, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Comelec chairman George Garcia did not disclose which party-list groups are these, but he said they are expecting the number to increase before the start of filing of candidacy for the 2025 midterm elections in October 2024.
“We only accredited about 14 party-list organizations, compared to 70 groups in 2022,” Garcia said.
“We are currently screening more than 100 of the party-list organizations and we’re hoping that at least 130 party-list organizations will be participating under the party list system in the coming 2025 elections,” Garcia added.
Meanwhile, the Comelec will ask Congress to amend Republic Act 7941 or the law governing the Party-List System to make sure marginalized sectors are always represented in the House of Representatives.
In an interview, Garcia said amending the Party-list Law would prevent political families and power brokers from abusing the law’s loopholes and easing out genuine representatives of the marginalized sector.
The poll chief said that loopholes in the 1995 law, coupled with contradictory Supreme Court decisions, allow those who already hold so much political power to take over the party-list system, such as allowing the sudden substitution of all five nominees, after the party-list is proclaimed a winner.
Garcia cited several instances of party-list groups’ presenting legitimate representatives and members of the marginalized sector during the hearing for their accreditation before the poll body, but only to find out that they list a different set of individuals as nominees during the filing of candidacy.