Mikey Arroyo in Congress. Photo from EllenTordesillas.com
Veteran partylist representatives Satur Ocampo of Bayan Muna and Liza Maza of Gabriela filed on Thursday a disqualification case against presidential son Mikey Arroyo who was named first nominee of a partylist group purportedly representing security guards.
Arroyo is currently a Member of the House of Representatives representing the second district of Pampanga. He has decided not to run for reelection to give way to the candidacy of his mother, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Dataline Philippines reports that Ocampo and Maza called Arroyo’s entry into the partylist system “a mockery” of the constitutional provision that states that the partylist system is for the marginalized and underrepresented sectors of the country.
The report said that:
Unlike the income of lowly security guards, Arroyo’s net worth has ballooned by more than 1,600% in seven years, from P5.7 million in 2001 to P74.4 million in 2004, and then to P99.2 million in 2008, according to an Inquirer report.
Citing a Supreme Court ruling on the Bagong Bayani case, the lawmakers said “it is not enough for the candidate to claim representation of the marginalized and underrepresented, because representation is easy to claim and to feign. The party-list organization or party must factually and truly represent the marginalized and underrepresented constituencies mentioned in Section 5. Concurrently, the persons nominated by the party-list candidate-organization must be Filipino citizens belonging to marginalized and underrepresented sectors, organizations and parties.”
Ocampo and Maza are guest senatorial candidates of the Nacionalista Party.
The younger Arroyo last year called for the regulation of Facebook.