Reform and Abolition: The Philippine Party-list System 185 CHAPTER SIX Reform and Abolition: The Philippine Party-list System Bobby M. Tuazon After 18 years of operationalization with seven elections, the Party-list system in the Philippines has been increasingly co-opted by the political elite. From taking 10% of the total number of seats allotted for Party-list groups in 1998, the political elite as represented by political families, traditional politicians, and other players by no means marginalized have increased their presence in the system to 21% in 2010, 41% in 2013, and 47% in the May 2016 elections. Progressive Party-lists along with other groups have since 1998 attempted to reform the system to ensure and protect the representation of the poor in lawmaking at the House of Representatives. Such reforms, however, ran against a wall of institutional gridlocks in Congress, the Commission on Elections (Comelec), as well as the judiciary. Now the Party-List system is threatened with abolition if the current President, Rodrigo R. Duterte, had his way. Just a month after assuming the presidency, Duterte in late July 2016, vowed to strike the Party-list system out of the Constitution saying that it has been abused by groups organized by the rich who made “a mockery of the law.” He said further that the new constitution that will adopt a Federal form of government will not include a Party-list system even as he promised that the new charter that will be drafted by a constituent assembly will be “pro-poor.” Absent clarication by the President on how his proposed Federal government will guarantee the representation of the poor in the legislature, the fate of the Party-list system is now in limbo – its reconstitution in whatever form yet to be etched.