While it was meant for good - that is: to provide political access to representatives of marginalized groups -- the Party-list system only leads to factions in Congress. It has so far been heavily misused by powerful and rich families and personalities.

The Constitution and its implementing law introduced this system only for a transitional period of three elections. It is perpetuated due to vested interests of many persons who directly benefit from it.

The members of the House should be elected in a mixed system of 50% direct elections in Congressional Districts, and 50% election in a proportional system or Proportional Representation (PR) through party-lists. These should be drawn from all parties registered and accredited for participation in the elections. Proportional Representation is the process of transforming votes into seats in the Congress. There should be no limits for the seats of each party depending on the percentage garnered by the party-lists which will be translated into seats in the House of Representatives.

This would ensure a very effective representation of different sectors and marginalized groups as candidates on the party lists of major national parties compete with one another for the votes of the groups of citizens.

CDP will fight for the reform of the election periods of national and local elections. Members of the Senate and of the House of Representatives should be elected for four years with possibility of re-election twice. Governors, mayors and all elected local officials should be elected for five years with possibility of re-election for two times.

This will strongly improve the quality of the work of these democratic institutions, enable them to follow more medium- and long-term objectives for the benefit of the citizens and save money as the number of costly elections would be reduced.

In order to institutionalize political parties, some things must be done first: Reform the Party List Act: open Party List elections to all legally-registered political parties and distribute seats in proportion to that party’s share of votes.

These steps can be done without having to change the constitution.

For long-term improvement of the quality and stability of Philippine Democracy, however, strong existing connections between economic and political power should be dissolved. The rule of law should also allow changes in the constitution.