Mikey Arroyo as Tricycle Drivers' Rep

Sometime in 2010, the Comelec voted 4-2-1 to allow Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo to represent the party-list group Ang Galing Pinoy. Mikey was allowed to represent the marginalized security guards and tricycle drivers in the House of Representatives. The Comelec explained that the nominee himself need not be marginalized so long as he is a bona fide member of the party organization whose members are marginalized and underrepresented. Is the Comelec correct?

SUGGESTED ANSWER:

No. When Congress finally enumerated the qualifications of a party-list representative it said in Section 9 of RA 7941: “No person shall be nominated as party-list representative unless he is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines, a registered voter, a resident of the Philippines for a period of not less than one (1) year immediately preceding the day of the election, able to read and write, a bona fide member of the party or organization which he seeks to represent for at least ninety (90) days preceding the day of the election, and is at least twenty-five (25) years of age on the day of the election.”

xxx But what does being a bona fide member of a party-list organization mean? The meaning cannot be a departure from the constitutional provision which says that he must be elected “from the labor, peasant, urban poor, indigenous cultural communities, women, youth, and such other sectors as may be provided by law, except the religious sector.” Or, as the Supreme Court said in 2001, he must be chosen from among those “1. who belong to marginalized and underrepresented sectors, organizations and parties; and 2. who lack well-defined constituencies; but 3. who could contribute to the formulation and enactment of appropriate legislation that will benefit the nation as a whole.”

xxx The Supreme Court reiterated this in Banat v. Comelec when it said that “it is not necessary that the party-list organization’s nominee ‘wallow in poverty, destitution and infirmity’ as there is no financial status required in the law. It is enough that the nominee fellester.blogspot.com of the sectoral party/organization/coalition belongs to the marginalized and underrepresented sectors, that is, if the nominee represents the fisherfolk, he or she must be a fisherfolk, or if the nominee represents the senior citizens, he or she must be a senior citizen.” (Mikey as party-list rep? By Fr. Joaquin G. Bernas, S.J. Philippine Daily Inquirer, 07/26/2010)