By Llanesca T Panti/Manila Times


Incumbent party-list lawmakers conceded yesterday that they are having a hard time charting their way back to Congress since it is harder to popularise a cause than a person.
Party-list representatives, Angelo Palmones of Alyansa ng mga Grupong Haligi ng Agham at Teknolohiya para sa Mamamayan (Agham) and Sherwin Tugna of the Citizens Battle Against Corruption (Cibac) made the disclosure just two days after the Social Weather Stations (SWS) released a survey on likely winners in the party-list race for the May polls. Based on the SWS survey, Palmones’ Agham will lose badly since it only earned a voter preference of .14%, way behind the required 2% of the voter turnout for the party-list race which would earn a party-list group at least one seat in the House of Representatives.
“I could say Agham lacks visibility. We have very few campaign materials because we want to have a clean campaign, literally and figuratively. As you might already know, there’s an influx of campaign materials during elections, which all become garbage,” Palmones said in a phone interview with
Manila Times.
Instead of spending for the campaign, Palmones said Agham is spending its resources in extending financial assistance to various government agencies which lack facilities, such as lack of rescue boats and other disaster preparedness initiatives. “We cannot join the fray of politicians who spend a lot for campaign materials because we believe that the cheaper the campaign is, the less corruption. With all the campaign spending, how do you expect these candidates to recover their losses, should they win,” asked Palmones, a former broadcast journalist prior to his election to the Congress in 2010.
“If we are going to lose because of doing this cause, then so be it. It is a challenge we are willing to face because this is how you respect the electorate. Public officials should have moral ascendancy,” Palmones added.
Tugna, who also serves as the House Assistant majority leader, then noted that the party-list race cannot be compared to the Senate derby even if both positions’ constituencies are on the national level because it is harder to campaign for a cause, rather than a personality.
“The senatorial candidates have bailiwicks, such as their hometown, the hometown of their parents, and other relatives. For the party-list nominees, we also have such bailiwicks. The problem is, our cause may not be necessarily popular among the voters in our bailiwicks,” said Tugna, whose Cibac party-list scored a 1.31% voter preference in the SWS survey which is good for one seat.