I was driving along EDSA the other day and was surprised to see quite a number of large billboards promoting political parties running under the partylist system. These ads, I noticed, feature pictures of prominent celebrities with their smiles plastered all over their faces. I’m pretty sure casual voters would have the impression that these celebrities are nominees of the parties they gleefully endorse and therefore would potentially vote for those groups they represent.

And there lies the problem with the partylist system. People really don’t know anything about it or what those parties that participate in it stand for or why they are supposedly significant in terms of both legislation and governance.

This is why year in and year out, we see organizations being formed for the sole purpose of gunning for partylist seats. Though not necessarily fly-by-night, they are not well-entrenched in the community either and have no track record of service, particularly at the grassroots level. Their advocacies are at best ambiguous, and once elected, their nominees do not necessarily pursue meaningful legislation on behalf of the sectors they represent. Most of the time, they engage in too much politicking instead of pushing for measures that would ameliorate the living conditions of the underrepresented. Meanwhile, some of them are even implicated in the pork barrel scam and other controversies.

In one study, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism discovered that at least 70 partylist groups during the previous election had connections to political clans or incumbent national or local officials. In fact, Mikee Romero of the partylist group One Patriotic Coalition of Marginalized Nationals had a net worth of almost 7 billion pesos and was once considered the richest congressman in the House of Representatives.

Why this has happened is due to a number of factors. One of these is a Supreme Court decision that says the partylist can be open to various kinds of groups and parties, as it is not an exercise exclusive to marginalized sectors. This is why there is no more need to organize along sectoral lines.

While in principle, the partylist is meant to allow for ample and proportional representation in Congress, it has metamorphosed into a system that ironically further marginalizes the marginalized, as it is weaponized by moneyed groups to get seats in Congress.

Ideally, the purpose of the partylist is to do away with personality-oriented politics, which has come to define our electoral landscape. This explains why the focus is on the political parties and not their nominees. The problem, though, is that Comelec has failed to implement an effective voter education campaign and has not really fully scrutinized the qualifications of organizations seeking accreditation.

This is not, of course, entirely its fault. It has too much on its plate, so it needs to recalibrate its mechanism to accommodate changes in implementation. Surely, it would help if Congress would amend the law to rectify those mistakes made. But I bet it is not willing to do that because its members are the ones benefiting from circumventing the law.

Truth be told, those truly marginalized groups can hardly participate in an electoral contest. Unless they are members of the Makabayan Bloc, which receives funds from various sources, legally or seemingly otherwise, they do not have the needed machinery to mount a political campaign. Just look at those billboards on EDSA. Huge resources are needed to post them. Where do you think they get the money from?

Anyway, there’s one large billboard there that really caught my attention. It’s the one that advertises the “Agimat” Party and Senator Bong Revilla. As it turns out, the good Senator, just like the rest of our politicians, really has an “agimat.” You know what that is? Hindi sila tinatablan ng hiya!