By Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza, Reporter

THE party-list system was designed to represent specific interests in Congress like agriculture, but has been co-opted by dynastic politicians, political analysts said.

“The party-list system has been hijacked by traditional politicians and dynasties. It is difficult to win seats if the playing field is not even,” Maria Ela L. Atienza, a political scientist at the University of the Philippines, said via Viber.

“While we have genuine progressive candidates from the farming and fishing sectors running at the Senate level, elections in the Philippines are still dominated by elites, celebrities and political dynasties,” she added.

The Philippines will hold midterm elections today, Monday, with 12 seats in the 24-member Senate and over 300 seats in the House of Representatives up for grabs.

Randy P. Tuaño, dean at the Ateneo School of Government, said the achievement of major reforms has been marked by concerted efforts by farmer interest groups.

He said the farm lobby was strong in the 1980s, when the main issue was land justice, which led to the passage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program law in 1988.

He said land reform was a significant component of the 1987 Constitution, thanks to the efforts of the Congress for a People’s Agrarian Reform, which brought together over 200 groups representing farmers and fisherfolk, alongside civic and church groups.

Mr. Tuaño said some of the notable recent reforms include the Sagip Saka Act, which gave local government units the power to purchase agriculture produce for their feeding and relief programs directly from farmers groups, without the need to go through public bidding.

The law was written by Francis Pancratius N. Pangilinan, who is seeking to return to the Senate as a farmer advocate.

The other advocates for farmers and fisherfolk seeking Senate seats are Roberto Ballon, a Ramon Magsaysay awardee recognized for his mangrove and marine conservation efforts; Danilo H. Ramos of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas; and Ronnel G. Arambulo of fisherfolk group Pamalakaya.

In the House, at least four party-list organizations are billing themselves as farmer advocates.

According to an international observer mission fielded by the International Coalition for Human Rights, at least 78 of the 156 party-list organizations certified by the Commission on Elections are affiliated with political families.

“If we are talking about the farming lobby per se, its strength is tied to the connections our various farmer organizations and federations have with sympathetic politicians,” according to Hansley A. Juliano, who teaches politics at the Ateneo de Manila.

The result has been that “many of our leading lawmakers (are tied to) agribusiness or are landowners,” he said via Messenger chat.

He said the last major item of legislation that advanced farming industry reform was a 2009 law that extended the deadline by five years for distributing agricultural land — originally set to expire in 2008.

De La Salle University political science professor Anthony Lawrence Borja said agrarian groups have “little to no power in the policy process” in the absence of any “effective, comprehensive, and nationalist policy on agrarian reform and industrialization.”

According to an ASEAN briefing report in March, the growth of Vietnamese agriculture, which employs 33% of that country’s workforce and which is set to grow 3.5% to 4% annually over the next five years, is driven by its focus on higher-value crop production and export-oriented agribusiness.

Mr. Borja added that the case of Japan highlights how comprehensive agrarian reform under strong state institutions can foster agrarian industrialization that is high-value and capital-intensive.

“Some lessons for the farming sector interests include consolidation of the various farmers groups so that more unified and effective lobbying efforts can be undertaken,” Mr. Tuaño said.

Farmers’ groups should also wage campaigns at the local level, pressing for greater local budgets for food security and agricultural modernization, and climate change adaptation, he added.