12 years of the party list system : marginalizing people's representation / edited by Bobby M. Tuazon.

On the Party-List System : The Authors Say - While we may all agree to the fact that these precious party list seats are given away as tokens up for grabs, the participation of the Progressive forces hit sensitive and raw nerves. Rightlist elements in the political spectrum prefer that these same genuine representatives of the poor and marginalized confine their advocacies to the streets-or the hinterlands. -Ed Clements The Party-list landscape has changed and those who want to make it an effective arena for the people's legislative agenda must adjust their legislative and electoral work to this changed condition if they hope to wage a serious battle to preserve and expand the gains of the people in the party-list system.-Neri Javier Colmenares Elections in and of themselves do not constitute democracy. They are not an end but a atep, albeit an important and often essential one, on the path toward the democratization of societies and the realization of the right to take part in the governance of one's country as enunciated in major international human rights instruments.-Leila M. de Lima The large member of disenfranchised voters is caused by the weaknesses of the seat allocation formulae used since 1998. The main reason is putting up of a limit on the number of seats that a partylist group can win to three seats.-Felix Muga II