Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Chairman George Erwin Garcia speaks during an open forum titled “Straight from the Source: The COMELEC Assessment of the 2022 National and Local Elections” held at the Sheraton Hotel in Manila on October 18, 2022. George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News/File

MANILA - Commission on Elections Chair George Erwin Garcia says the poll body has so far accredited only 14 party-list groups for the 2025 midterm elections.

"I can proudly say that presently we only accredited about 14 party-list organizations," said Garcia.

He recalled that at this time in the 2022 election season, the poll body has already accredited about 70 groups. 

Garcia did not name the groups, but said the poll body would screen party-list groups and they hope over 100 groups will eventually be accredited.

"We are up to the challenge the present leadership will really screen the party-list organization it should be accrediting and we're hoping that at least (about) 130 party-list organizations will be participating under the party list system this coming 2025 elections," Garcia added.

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The COMELEC chairman is batting for amendments to Republic Act 7941 or the law governing the Party-List System to make sure marginalized sectors are always represented in the House of Representatives.

Garcia says he is also proposing to restrict the substitution of party-list nominees after elections, citing cases of party-list nominees being substituted after a group has won the elections for the House of Representatives.

Under his proposal, each group will be limited to nominating only 15 nominees for party-list seats before the election. No nominee will be accepted after a group has won. 

Garcia cites instances where a party-list group's nominees were all replaced after the group won a seat in Congress.

Garcia concedes the law imposes no limitation so this is just their attempt to protect the integrity of the election. 

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Right now each group can nominate up to five nominees before the elections but these can all be replaced upon the resignation of the nominees.

"Siguro naman sa 15 'di naman lahat magkakasakit. Sa 15 'di naman lahat siguro magreresign at sa 15 'di naman siguro lahat diyan ay because of personal reason or family reason sa 15 yun mukhang napakaimposible na," Garcia said.  

"Yung five naju-justify nila yung 15 naman siguro naman under our inherent constitutional duty then we can prevent substitution, especially after the election when the people had already given the mandate, then it is now our duty to ensure that the integrity of the electoral process  is protected and the only way to do that is to restrict and limit substitution."

(Hopefully, not all 15 will resign or be sick or have personal or family reasons. They can justify five but not 15)

Garcia urges lawmakers to amend the law to define which sectors should be covered by the party list law to ensure genuine representation. 

"So that at any given time in Congress, there will be representative or nominee coming from the urban poor, the fisherfolks, the women, the youth (so that there really is ) equal representation because I think that's the very meaning in form and substance of the so-called marginalized and under-represented sector (which is why they always say) that the party list system is the most prostituted system in our democratic system but whether all of us will agree or not, there is a need to overhaul the present system under Republic Act 7941," said Garcia during the Multiparty Dialogue on the Role of Party-list Organizations in Political and Electoral Reforms organized by PARTICIPATE, a non-partisan and pro-democracy coalition, which explored critical areas for reform and the role of party-list groups.

"There is a problem there are issues to be resolved as far as the party list system is concerned."