2025/10/29 by Dolo, Shivanee A.
#Philippines #descriptive representation #indigenous peoples #party-list system #substantive representation
paper · doi:10.14764/10.aseas-0130
This qualitative study examines whether the Philippine party-list system effectively enables indigenous peoples’ legislative representation by reviewing documents from the Philippine Commission on Elections, the Philippine Congress, the Philippine Supreme Court, and the profiles of elected indigenous peoples’ party-list groups. Using Hannah Pitkin’s dimensions of representation, this study finds that, as a form of formal mechanism, the party-list system provides limited representation opportunities for indigenous peoples’ party-list groups. Additionally, although the elected sectoral representatives are members of indigenous communities, their socio-economic status differs from that of most of the indigenous peoples. Finally, the presence of indigenous peoples’ sectoral representatives in the legislature did not result in adequate substantive representation of indigenous communities, as most indigenous-related proposals have not passed into legislation. This study concludes that the mainstream electoral mechanism fails to effectively enhance the legislative representation of indigenous peoples.