on paper, the party list system is ideal. But that’s before politicians saw the potential to enter the Lower House through party list votes, like cronies using dummy corporations. For example, Davao Rep. Prospero Nograles’ Kalahi party, which supposedly represents the OFWs, but actually a ruse to install his son, Karlo.
Apart from the country remaining to be feudal, the absence of disdain from the public against turncoatism and some of the antics of these politicians speaks volume about our fascination with people who are perceived to be better than us.
Like their status entitles them to a little more leeway compared to mere mortals.

p.s.

No wonder you got 1.5.

the staus quo`s party-list system sucks. we get people who represent not the marginalized people but distorted ideologies and, like what pablo said, dummy organizations.

we get a bunch of parties representing the same man: jose maria sison. on the other hand, the real marginalized sectors like the OFWs, the farmers, fishermen, tribal groups etc are barely represented.

how do we liberate them? simple but unrealistic: ban all present and previous politicians from ever running again in public office.

then again such a solution might just lead to birth of another elite. presence of an oligarch institution is an inconvenience all countries should live with, because there really is no way to create a society without them. trying to oust one oligarchic institution would just lead to the birth of another. it`s a vicious cycle.

louis`s royalist tyrrants were replaced by napoleon`s militarists. marcos disempowered the “old elite” but replace them with a “new elite”. lenin ousted russian oligarch but replaced them with the politburo and its minions.

pablo, it’s good on paper but the implementation is a mathematical absurdity. according to the 1987 Constitution, party-lists were to be awarded 20% of the seats in Congress or approximately 55 seats. however, due to some problems with the 2% threshold, only a pathetic number of seats were filled. Nineteen, out of 55.

the problem, i think, is the interpretation of the Party List Law.

for more info, read Felix Muga here http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/talkofthetown/view_article.php?article_id=74154

J: wouldn’t you rather have any semblance of ideology than an overpowering drive for money? ‘this ‘distortion’ which you speak of is highly subjective.

and yes, it is unreaslitic. the elite of the Philippines has been here since the Spaniards saw, came and conquered. however, if one leader who has positive, honest intentions and an unwavering political will ascends to power, the elite may be brought down. but i suppose this leader is more impossible.

yes, i do agree that elites are inevitable because equality among men and women only exist in paper and lucid dreams. but there are the better type of elites, and then there are the worse ones. the best we can hope for is to get elites who put forward national instead of business interests first.

the problem with the current active party lists is that they ‘represent’ the marginalized sector of the society. somehow marginalized to me is synonymous to “being poor,” “api,” “masa,” and drama. They are made of the same formula found on TV and found in the elite members of congress.

The approach should be cultural rather a legal or legislative one.

it is funny how we blamed the dead spaniards, dead americans and dead japs. it is like a lame novel using history, god, and evolution to justify a plot.

party list could work if we could redefine what is a marginalize sector for year 2010.

– –

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/www/column/WayWorld44.html

http://www.asiaviews.org/?content=25889s1dddt33gf&colcom=20070712024722

I’m sure I’d be frustrated about this and that sytem too if I actually understood your paper but alas, it’s too intaligant for me.

Kidding!

I just wanted to say kudos kid! And is it odd that I feel real proud of you Lizzles? Anyway, I go not make sense elsewhere now.

the problem with the current active party lists is that they ‘represent’ the marginalized sector of the society. somehow marginalized to me is synonymous to “being poor,” “api,” “masa,” and drama. They are made of the same formula found on TV and found in the elite members of congress.

Dave, “marginalized” does not necessarily mean impoverished. the root word, “marginal” basically means at the border, edge, or fringe. when we refer to the “marginalized” in society, we refer to the people who are a minority and/or who has a low status in society, and thus, is underrespresented. some examples would be the elderly, our indigenous countrymen, war veterans, gays, or the handicapped, among others.

The approach should be cultural rather a legal or legislative one.

Which means…?

it is funny how we blamed the dead spaniards, dead americans and dead japs. it is like a lame novel using history, god, and evolution to justify a plot.

this is not a lame novel with a lame plot. this is reality. we refer to dead spaniards, americans and japs because they influenced who we are now. we cannot simply discard this influence in our past, because then we would not be able to analyze our present and future.

history is not a lame justification for our current troubles—it is an explanation.

boss: hugz! you should see my other paper on the European institutional reform. i barely understand it.

the thing is, i believe it would take a bloody event to get a responsible elite to take power in this country. the reason is because of the country`s spanish heritage and the long history of feudalism. the elite that we have remains the same despite previous efforst to replace them. they are behind many trubled events in the country. and as the phenomenon called Edsa 2 proved, the state remains committed to their welfare and they remain the state`s kingmakers. this is not unique in the philippines. this is also the reason why there is not a single first world country in latin america.

marcos had the potential of being the kind of leader you mentioned, that`s why the fact that he blew that potential remains the greatest historical frustration for me.

as for the party-list system, i didn`t say it should cater to money-politics. but i also believe it shouldn`t cater to ideologies. it should be a way for the marginalized (i.e. fishermen, farmers, OFWs, urban poor, tribal minorities) to be represented. the thing is, the present mechanism of the system is making it susceptible to abuse of democracy by the very same people who seek to destroy democracy. i hate the national security adviser (forgot the idiot`s name), but it pains me to say that he was right in saying the party-list organizations are all fronts of the communist movement who seek to turn the country into another north korea with joma sizon as southeast asia`s kim jong il.

if i were you, i wouldn’t trust my dog’s pussy on that Norberto Gonzales character.

prove that ALL party list organizations are communist fronts. then we talk.

ok, slip of the pen. i did say that all party-list orgs are communist fronts. i was worng. i shouldn`t have said ALL.

but most of them are. especially most of those who are now sitting in congress. i dont even think i need to do complicated things to prove that.