PREQUALIFIED: Commission on Elections Chairman Jose Melo was once an associate justice of the Supreme Court. We presume that the principle of never prejudging people must have been ingrained in him.

It was then dismaying to hear the ex-justice saying last Wednesday that Rep. Mikey Arroyo of Pampanga was qualified to represent a party-list of security guards while announcing in the same breath that the Comelec still had to draw up the guidelines or criteria for party-list nominees.

With the Comelec chairman having prequalified the President’s son, will the poll body now tailor the guidelines to qualify Arroyo and other big shots also using party-lists to grab seats in the House of Representatives?

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BACKDOOR: To justify his having prequalified Arroyo as nominee of the Ang Galing Pinoy party-list of security guards, Melo used tricycle drivers as illustration. He asked if they should be represented only by their fellow tricycle drivers.

He was reducing the question to absurdity. Of course they can be represented by a qualified somebody who is not necessarily a tricycle driver.

For instance, they could nominate a community leader or a lawyer who has been servicing their legal needs for quite some time. But certainly not a politician or a congressman who is about to lose his seat in the Congress and is looking for a backdoor to sneak back.

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IBASURA: Re our suggestion for voters to SKIP THE PARTY-LIST part of the ballot on May 10 if they do not know the PL nominees, it turned out that skipping or totally boycotting the party-lists will not keep away the wolves disguised as sheep.

Last Tuesday, reader Arcee Suarez <regaleconcepts@yahoo.com> pointed out that the two percent that a party-list needs under the law to gain one House seat is two percent only of the votes cast for all party-lists — not two percent of all the votes cast nationwide.

“Whether few or many vote on them, it’s still possible to get two percent,” he wrote. “I agree with you that the essence of party-list is being trampled upon by trapos and their interest groups. Your suggestion (to skip the PLs) would at least show our displeasure.”

Still, reader Vicente Contreras <vicentecon@gmail.com> went ahead and suggested a boycott slogan:“SKIP – Sa Kangkungan Ibasura – Party-list.”

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EEEK, THEY’RE COMING!: The scary thing is that whatever voters do — skip, boycott or go all out to vote – party-lists will still get in and worsen the redundant representation and pork barrel problems in the House.

Assume a boycott where only 100,000 votes are cast nationwide for all party-lists (against the estimated 50 million registered voters). That is an extremely low number, but there will be still a two percent of it, and several seats still going to PLs.

Worse, under the tortured computation of the last SC ruling on party-lists, if those getting two percent or more are not enough to fill the 50 or so seats reserved by the Constitution for PLs, even those getting less than two percent will be given the rest of the PL seats.

This prompted reader Billy del Rosario to suggest: “It may be better to encourage voters to evaluate all PLs and decide Who and Which PL best deserves their vote. The larger the number of votes cast for many different PLs, the more votes Mikey needs to get his two percent. Conversely, if fewer votes are cast for PLs, the fewer votes Mikey needs and the higher the chances of their second nominee getting in as well.”

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DIVISIVE: But we are already talking of the nominees. We should step back to check the qualifications of the party-lists being allowed to run.

Disqualifying some of the groups already given the green light may be quite late, but a review could be instructive for voters who need guidance on who or what to vote for.

Reader Rolando Calimlim emails: “Ngayon may sumaling LPG, susunod nyan ULING PARTY naman. Pati regional party dumami, waray, bikol, ilongo.para bang wala nang nasyunalismo, ginamit na nga ng mga Kastila ang divide and rule tapos magpahanggang ngayon sa ginagawa pa rin ng mga regionalistic culture… Tama po kayo dapat boykotin na ang party-list eleksyon. Bakit tayo sasama sa pagbababoy ng mga Arroyo family at ng mga kanilang alipures?”

Oo nga naman… what would now stop other ethnic groups from asking for similar party-list accreditation? Instead of uniting the country, we would be throwing the nation back to tribal rivalries.

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MARGINALIZED FOREVER?: If we keep the party-list system, we should at least put in a sunset provision that any PL that has won a seat in three consecutive elections should be deemed to be no longer marginalized and be barred from running.

After three terms, a marginalized or disadvantaged party-list sector should have improved its standing. Alas, what usually improves is not the poor sector’s situation, but the nominee’s amassing of wealth and power.

In the case of women’s party-lists, who says that women are under-represented or marginalized in this matriarchal community? Aminin na natin, it is actually the women who are running this country!

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JESLI NOT RUNNING: Trade and Industry Secretary Jesli A. Lapus is smarting from a wild claim of the Kabataan party-list that Lapus is one of several government officials who are party-list nominees.

Lapus said this is not true. As early as last month when speculations started, Lapus has declared: “I am not and will not be a nominee of any party-list.”

Other government officials using party-lists to grab House seats should explain their spending public funds to advance their sneaky candidacy.