MANILA — Ramon Casiple said political families — not parties — dominate the 2022 national elections, citing their concentrated wealth and power in an interview with PTV-4 last May 10.
“Walang lumitaw na pangalan na political party hindi kagaya nung panahon may Nacionalista Party, Liberal Party. Ang tumatambad sa atin ngayon ay mga pamilya. Kaya yung tatakbo sa ganitong family suportado ng ibang family, ganyan ang naging kalakaran ng ating eleksyon ngayon,” he said.
Casiple said passing a law banning families from holding multiple elective posts will take some time as lawmakers “quickly quash measures introduced in Congress.”
He also noted that a political clan’s endorsement of a national candidate “could possibly boost the latter’s chances of winning polls.”
“Pati yung mga patakaran at programa ng sino mang nanalo, protektado ‘yan ng interes ng political families,” he said.
In the 2022 elections, the Marcos and Duterte clans teamed up for the presidential and vice-presidential posts with Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte forming the UniTeam tandem.
In the May 13 partial, unofficial result of the 2022 presidential and vice-presidential races based on real-time data from the Comelec transparency server, Bongbong Marcos is leading with 31,104,175 votes along with his running mate Sara Duterte with 31,561,948 votes.
Clamor
In November 2021, outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte said “political dynasties are not bad and are here to stay unless the 1987 Constitution is amended.”
In a speech in Buenavista, Agusan del Norte during last month’s Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan’s (PDP-Laban) campaign sortie, Duterte cited the case of the Aquino political dynasty which produced two presidents and local leaders’ clamor on why influential political clans hold several positions in government.
“But it’s the people who clamor for it just like with the Aquinos” Duterte said.
Duterte, whose three children (Sara is the presumptive vice-president in the 2020 polls while sons Paolo and Sebastian ran as first District representative of Davao City and Mayor, respectively) are elected to public office said he felt “embarrassed” his family is among the political clans dominating Philippine elections.
In a report by The Philippine News Agency (PNA), the 1987 Constitution bars political dynasties under Article II Section 26 which mandates “equal access to opportunities for public service” but Congress is yet to pass a law to implement it while several anti-political dynasty bills remain pending at the committee level.
Disturbing
Political scientist Julio Teehankee told Rappler’s special coverage for the closing of the 2022 elections’ campaign period, warned the possibility of having eight of the 24 members of the Senate coming from powerful political clans may “tarnish” the upper chamber’s reputation of compiling the “best and brightest” of the Filipino people.
In a panel discussion on May 7, Teehankee described as disturbing the opposition’s decline and the packing of the Senate with political clans.
“This is disturbing because the Senate has always been considered the upper chamber, and for some, even the better chamber. Kasi nga, in the old Senate, the old congress, only the best and the brightest gets elected,” he said.
Currently, the Senate has the Binays, the Cayetanos, the Estradas and the Villars among its incumbents while in the May 15 partial, official result of the 2022 Senatorial race based on 139 out of 173 Certificates of Candidacy (COC) tallied included Mark Villar, Jinggoy Estrada, JV Ejercito and Alan Peter Cayetano in the Magic 12.
Re-electionist Sen. Risa Hontiveros of Akbayan is the sole opposition candidate in the Magic 12.
“So, ang tanong natin with the incoming composition of the Senate and the retirement of the old guards of the upper house, masasabi pa ba natin na the best and the brightest ito?” Teehankee said, citing “Senate” comes from the Latin senex which means old or wise.
