Prospects and Scenarios for the Party List System in the Philippines About Us Core Themes Activities Publications Online Materials FES Dialogue on Globalization FES International Policy Analysis Unit FES Journal ­International Politics and Society By Adriano Fermin Published by Ateneo School of Government and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung(FES), Philippine Office April 2001 1.0 Introduction The Party List System in the Philippines constitutes one of the major political innovations that were introduced by social and political reformers after the 1986 EDSA Revolution. During the framing of the 1987 Constitution, civil society organizations intensely campaigned for the inclusion of the party list system that would give chances to"marginalized" sectors to participate in the country’s political processes. The untiring efforts by civil society groups paid off with the inclusion of Section 5 Article VI of the 1987 Constitution providing that: (1)"The House of Representatives shall be composed of not more than two hundred and fifty members, unless otherwise fixed by law, who shall be elected from the legislative districts apportioned among the provinces, cities, and the Metropolitan Manila area in accordance with the number of their respective inhabitants, and on the basis of a uniform and progressive ratio, and those who, as provided by law, shall be elected through a party­list system of registered national, regional, and sectoral parties or organizations. (2)"Party list representatives shall constitute twenty percentum of the total number of representatives including those under the party list. For three consecutive terms after the ratification of this Constitution, one-half of the seats allocated to party list representatives shall be filled, as provided by law, by selection or election from the labor, peasant, urban poor, indigenous cultural communities, women, youth and such other sectors as may be provided by law, except the religious sector." Civil society groups lobbied hard for the inclusion of this provision because they believed that such a system would encourage the type of politics that are anchored on principles or programs. It was also thought that this would result in a healthy multi­party system and open the electoral window to small sectoral parties. Eight years after, Congress enacted Republic Act 7941 on February 28, 1995 as the enabling law of the party list system. Section 3 of the said law defines party list system as a"mechanism of proportional representation in the election of representatives to the House of Representatives from the national, regional, and sectoral parties or organizations or coalitions thereof registered with the Commission on Elections (COMELEC). The first election under the system was in May 1998 wherein 13 party list groups were able to land 14 seats in the House of Representatives. In the said election, major political parties were initially banned from participating, thus paving the way for small parties and groups to have representation in the House of Representatives.(Prior to 1998, half the seats allocated for party-lists were filled up by the President of the