ConCom introduces provisions on turncoatism

By Charmaine A. Tadalan
A SUBCOMMITTEE of the Consultative Committee (ConCom) on charter change has proposed provisions banning elected officials from switching political parties within their term.
“The Subcommittee on Political Reforms: Leveling the Political field has passed in principle the provisions on turncoatism,” professor Julio C. Teehankee said in a press briefing on Thursday.
The proposal also includes that two years before and two years after the election, candidates and party officials are prohibited from changing parties; while political parties, in turn, are restricted from accepting “transferees.”
Mr. Teehankee explained the subcommittee decided to set the two-year period based on their proposal for elective officials to serve a four-year term.
Violators of the said provision will lose their position, be barred from appointment to any post and from running in the following election, and will be obliged to return party funds used for their campaign.
Furthermore, political parties will be mandated to recruit members coming from the marginalized and underrepresented sectors.
“What we have introduced is to shift the burden from sectors, especially the marginalized sectors, from organizing their own party,” Mr. Teehankee said. “But rather all political parties, both established ones and new ones, are now obligated to recruit from the (economically) marginalized and underrepresented.”
Marginalized sectors include peasants, fisher-folk, workers, urban poor and indigenous people; while the underrepresented are persons with disability, professionals, educators and the youth, among others.
“We also want to open our party system not only to the marginalized but to the middle income,” he said, noting that politically active members of the middle-class are key to a vibrant democracy.
“We would like to infuse new ideas, new blood in our political system by mandating political parties to actively recruit from the professionals in the middle class and the underrepresented, including the emerging LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) community,” Mr. Teehankee added.
Political parties will be required to register with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to ensure that parties have a clear democratic program and platform. They shall also provide a proper and proportionate representation of women among their candidates.
Those that will not be allowed to register are parties with religious denominations, supported by foreign governmenst, those that seek to achieve their goals through violent means and those refusing to uphold the Constitution.
These provisions, according to Mr. Teehankee, are under a new article that will be introduced in the constitution. The proposed article will be titled “Political Rights, Suffrage, and Political Parties.”
“In the new article we are proposing, there are two sections that provide a framework of political rights, and these two sections emphasize every Filipino has the right to vote and to be voted and participate directly and indirectly in governance,” Mr. Teehankee said. The 1987 Constitution only has an article on suffrage, a one-sentence provision on political parties and nothing on turncoatism.