INQUIRER.net Eleksyon 2007

Abalos brother leads group of tricycle drivers

Inquirer

Christian V. Esguerra

MANILA, Philippines -- What does a doctor of medicine have to do with a group of tricycle drivers seeking representation in Congress?

Not only that, Dr. Arsenio Abalos is also the elder brother of Benjamin Abalos Sr., chair of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Akbayan party-list Rep. Loretta Ann Rosales Monday raised the issue before the Comelec, questioning the legality and propriety of the body accrediting a supposed party-list organization involving a close relative of its chair.

“There’s a conflict of interest,” Rosales Monday told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in an interview. “My gosh, you are the chair of the Comelec ... Jurisprudence itself says that nominees and leaders of a party-list organization must themselves be reflective of a marginalized (sector).”

Arsenio Abalos is a director of Biyaheng Pinoy, a group of tricycle drivers in Mandaluyong City where the Comelec chair lives and had served as mayor, according to Rosales. She said the group had been organized by the city’s vice mayor.

Dubious backgrounds

“(A)re you to say that it is of no importance to you that a brother of no less than the chair of the Comelec is a high-ranking leader of a party-list group you recently accredited?” she said in a letter to Abalos Monday.

Rosales identified Biyaheng Pinoy as one of at least 11 party-list groups accredited by the Comelec despite their allegedly “dubious” backgrounds.

At least four of them -- Akbay Pinoy, Babae Ka, Aksyon Sambayanan, and Ang Kasangga -- were allegedly fronting for Sigaw ng Bayan, the Malacañang-backed group behind the failed plan to revise the Constitution via a signature campaign last year.

Organized by Malacañang

In her letter, Rosales cited a recent media interview by the Babae Ka spokesperson, who supposedly admitted that the group had been partly organized by Malacañang’s Office of External Affairs (OEA).

Citing another media interview, she said no less than Assistant Secretary Marcelo Fariñas II of the OEA had admitted “helping” Agbiag, a regional party whose secretary general is said to be Fariñas himself.

Rosales said the OEA’s known function was to “reach out and help NGOs (nongovernment organizations) through a variety of programs and services.”

“Here we find Mr. Fariñas, OEA (assistant secretary), reaching out and providing services to himself,” the outgoing Akbayan representative told Abalos.

Incestuous

“Isn’t this a rather incestuous relationship, Mr. Chairman?” asked Rosales, who is on her third and last term in the House of Representatives.

The party-list system is enshrined in the 1987 Constitution to enable marginalized sectors to take part in legislation.

Since 1998, voters have elected into Congress representatives of national, regional and sectoral parties under the party-list system. Each party-list group is entitled to not more than three seats.

Meticulous

Party-list representatives should constitute 20 percent of the total number of members of the House of Representatives.

In a previous response to another Rosales letter, Abalos said: “As a quasi-judicial agency, Comelec, in screening the various groups, meticulously studies the voluminous records and documents it submits in support of its petition.”

“We decide based on evidence presented, whether for or against the above parties, not on mere speculations and hearsay. We look beyond the personalities involved as we, more importantly, lay emphasis on the achievements and track record of the organization as a whole in representation of the ‘underrepresented and marginalized,”’ Abalos said.

Lack of scrutiny

In the interview with the Inquirer, Rosales described as “lousy” the manner by which the Comelec was supposedly accrediting party-list groups.

“It seems that the chair, so far, has not addressed (the matter) and scrutinized (the questionable groups) in accordance with the spirit of the law,” she said.

“The very fact that so many of these party-list organizations of dubious backgrounds have been accredited raises a question.”

In her letter, Rosales also questioned the accreditation of Kakusa, an organization of convicts whose chair emeritus is convicted child rapist Romeo Jalosjos, a former congressman of Zamboanga del Norte.

“How can convicts be qualified to organize themselves into a party-list group on the basis of their track record?” she asked.

“Is it not a fact that convicts are not qualified to vote or run for any position in any election? Is this not making a mockery of an electoral instrument intended to empower the poor?” Rosales said.

Planholders disqualified

A group of education planholders victimized by pre-need companies is also planning to appeal its disqualification by the Comelec.

Philip Piccio, president of the PEP Coalition, questioned the junking of the group’s accreditation by the Comelec’s Second Division, saying PEP was earlier accredited by the poll body’s First Division.

Last week, the Comelec junked PEP Coalition’s accreditation based on a complaint filed by another party-list group, the Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (Anad), which had expressed its intention to field retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan as nominee.
“We went through the process and submitted all the requirements of the Comelec. So why has our registration as a party-list been canceled? What have we done against Anad and General Palparan? Do we look like communists?” Piccio said.

The PEP Coalition started out as a group of parents who were victimized by Pacific Plans Inc. of the Yuchengco family after the company filed for rehabilitation two years ago. The company had said it could not pay the educational plans that the parents bought for their children.

Since then, the PEP Coalition has adopted victims of College Assurance Plan, Platinum Plans and The Professional Group. With a report from Alcuin Papa

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