A SENATOR on Sunday said that he has filed a bill seeking to revise the country’s party-list system, for allegedly failing to represent the marginalized sector.
Senate Bill No. 192 seeks to amend Republic Act No. 7491, the Party-List System Act, to realign the system with its original intent under the Constitution.
“Amid the many issues hounding government officials, it is high time to revisit the true purpose of the party-list system, whether these groups are genuinely representing the marginalized, or merely hiding behind the guise of doing so for personal or political gain,” Senator Vicente C. Sotto III said in a statement.
The Philippine party-list system was introduced in the 1987 constitution to give marginalized groups representation at the House of Representatives.
The proposed measure widens the grounds for the cancellation of registration of party-list groups.
This includes failure to represent the marginalized and underrepresented sectors, instances where members or nominees do not belong to these sectors, direct or indirect participation in acts detrimental to the best interest of the government, ceasing to be a marginalized sector, and material misrepresentation of nominees.
The bill also requires all registered party-list nominees to belong to marginalized and underrepresented sectors, with the majority of its members belonging to these groups.
“Through the years, the interpretation of the law on party-list has expanded its qualification and has deviated from the intent of the framers of the 1987 Constitution, which is to truly represent the marginalized and the underrepresented,” he said in the bill’s explanatory note.
“The party-list system has also been abused and used as a vehicle to pursue advocacies that are not for the best interest of the government,” Mr. Sotto added.
According to an international observer mission report by the International Coalition for Human Rights, at least 78 of the 156 party-list organizations certified by the Commission on Elections during the 2025 national elections were affiliated with political families. — Adrian H. Halili
