SENATE President Pro Tempore Vicente Sotto III voiced concern over the proposed Party-List Reform Act, stressing that several provisions of the measure could undermine the original objective of the party-list system of giving representation to marginalized and underrepresented sectors.
During his interpellation on Senate Bill 2116 on Tuesday, Sotto said that the Party-List System Act, which he helped pass in 1995, had undergone years of interpretations that strayed from the intent of its framers.
“From the time that we passed it in 1995 up to the present, there were misinterpretations... not in conformity with the original intention that we wanted,” Sotto said.
He questioned the bill’s proposed allocation of 50 percent of party-list seats to national and regional parties, warning that it could weaken the constitutional mandate to prioritize marginalized groups.
“By reserving 50 percent of available seats for national and regional parties... does this provision not dilute the original intention of the framers of the Constitution, which was to ensure that marginalized sectors would be the ones given representation through the party-list system?” he said.
Sotto warned that the proposal could come at the expense of sectors traditionally represented under the party-list system.
“If this happens... there will be no more seats for labor, peasants, fisherfolk, or the urban poor,” the senator said.
