Background
The Drivers United for Mass Progress Philippines and Equal Rights – Philippines Taxi Driver Association (Dumper PDTA) is a party-list that purports to represent public utility drivers and commuters. Its representative is incumbent representative Claudine Bautista, currently the Vice-Chairperson on the committee on transportation.
In August of 2021, news surfaced that Representative Bautista celebrated a lavish island wedding in Balesin. Her wedding dress, according to reports was designed by internationally renowned designer Michael Cinco whose designs are estimated to cost at least 1.25 million pesos. The event was also attended by high profile VIPS and was roundly condemned given the context of the pandemic, where the drivers she purportedly represented were suffering from the loss of income due to lockdown measures
Dynasty and Pseudo Representation
Dumper PDTA has features of both a dynastic and a pseudo representative partylist. Prior to running in 2019, Rep. Bautista had no known track record of ever representing or belonging to the public transport sector. During her stint as Dumper PDTA representative since 2019, she has failed to pass any law directly addressed towards the public transport sector. All her transport bills languished in the committee on transportation.
The party-list is also clearly controlled by one political family. Rep. Bautista comes from Davao, and her father is currently the incumbent governor of Davao Occidental. She is also the niece of Rep. Lorna Bautista-Bandigan of the lone district of the same province.