The workers’ group Partido Manggagawa (PM) criticized George Royeca, owner of the Angkas platform app, for running as the first nominee of the Ang Kasangga partylist.
“How can a billionaire like George Royeca represent ordinary app riders? This is another Mikey Arroyo situation, where the son of former President Gloria Arroyo ran as the nominee of a fake security guards partylist,” said Judy Ann Miranda, PM secretary general.
“Royeca is a poster boy for undermining the partylist system, originally intended as a reform measure,” she added.
Miranda further explained that app riders have been misclassified as freelancers by platforms, denying them protection under labor standards and social security.
“Riders have been organizing against abuses, like arbitrary pay cuts. How can Royeca advocate for riders’ rights and welfare when he owns the app?” she said.
According to the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), 73 partylist groups have filed their certificates of nomination and acceptance, with more expected as 170 groups have been accredited.
“The Constitution created the partylist system as a mechanism to represent marginalized groups like workers, who have traditionally been excluded from Congress due to elite domination in politics. Unfortunately, fake partylist groups, like Ang Kasangga of the Angkas CEO, have provided a backdoor for ‘trapos’ and capitalists to enter the House of Representatives,” Miranda said.
She cited the 2010 election, when Ang Kasangga first ran as a partylist supposedly representing small entrepreneurs, but the COMELEC disqualified its first two nominees—a businessman and a former mayor—for not belonging to a marginalized group.
In the same election, Mikey Arroyo won as the nominee for a security guards partylist.
PM was part of the second wave of legitimate partylist groups that successfully put leaders of marginalized sectors in Congress. Rene Magtubo, a factory worker and union president, served as PM’s representative for two terms until 2007.
Miranda urged app riders to reject Ang Kasangga and instead support partylist groups that genuinely represent workers and other underrepresented sectors.
