A group called Anti-Crime and Terrorism through Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) landed on the top spot of the party-list elections yesterday, earning votes more than twice than that of leftist group Bayan Muna which landed in the second spot.
According to the partial and unofficial results from the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) as of 11:26 am today, ACT-CIS received 2,537,334 votes. Bayan Muna, a group that ran for re-election, has 1,081,554 votes. Rounding off the top five are Ako Bicol (1,015,942), Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption or CIBAC (902,050), and Ang Probinsyano (738,885).
ACT-CIS is known for counting pro-Duterte journalist Erwin Tulfo as one of its supporters. Its second nominee, Jocelyn Tulfo, is the wife of Erwin’s brother Raffy Tulfo. This means that she is poised to become a member of the House of Representatives based on today’s results.
The party-list system was created so that organizations can represent marginalized groups or causes in Congress. ACT-CIS says its goal is to support President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-crime platform.
According to Republic Act No. 7941, or the Party-List System Act, a party-list has to get at least 2 percent of the total votes cast to win one seat at the House of Representatives. Those who get more than 2 percent will be given additional seats by the COMELEC based on the total number of votes that they have received against the total number of nationwide votes that were cast for the party-list system. However, one party cannot be given more than three seats.
Erwin became embroiled in a controversy last year when his sister, former Department of Tourism secretary Wanda Teo, was accused of paying PHP60 million (US$1.146 million) to Kilos Pronto, a show which Erwin co-hosts with his brother, Ben Tulfo, who is also the producer.
Teo denied that there was a conflict of interest with her decision to pay Ben the PHP60 million (US$1.146 million), but she ended up resigning from her post in May 2018. Ben remains adamant that he would not return the money to the government.
The party-list elections have been criticized by observers because it has become a way for politicians or those connected to powerful people to become part of the House of Representatives. In fact, Rappler found that there are at least 65 party-list nominees in this year’s elections who are part of political clans or who have ties to powerful people.
This includes Luntiang Pilipinas nominee Ciara Sotto, a former actress and the daughter of Senator Vicente Sotto, and CIBAC nominee Eddie Villanueva, a famous pastor who ran for president in 2004 and 2010, and is the father of current Senator Joel Villanueva.
In 2013, the Commission on Elections disqualified several party-list groups for allegedly failing to represent marginalized groups. However, the Supreme Court decided in the same year that a group does not have to represent a marginalized sector for it to participate in the elections, reported Rappler.
