(Eagle News) — Senator Francis Pangilinan has filed a bill that seeks to create a state subsidy fund for political parties in a bid to supposedly strengthen them.
According to Pangilinan, Senate Bill 421 or the Political Party System Act, also seeks to make campaign finance more transparent, prohibit political turncoatism, and strengthen citizen-parties linkages.
“If political parties are state-funded, the public can demand accountability and transparency from parties and candidates,” Pangilinan said.
The senator said “political turncoatism shall be a ground for the disqualification of candidates, while parties that accept turncoats shall be disqualified from receiving the state subsidy.”
“Moreover, party-members shall be required to uphold the values and ethical standards on their public lives,” he said.
“If we are to encourage a bigger part of the electorate to be critical thinkers and have informed positions on issues that affect the country, we need to establish a credible political party system where people who have the same ideologies and advocacies can work toward the promotion of said beliefs. Dapat tayong lumayo sa trapo politics (We must move away from personality and patronage politics),” Pangilinan added.
