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“World capital of political dynasties”
Political dynasties continue to reign in the Philippine political landscape, especially in isolated and far-off provinces, despite anti-dynasty initiatives of civil society, a study by the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Policy Center has found.
Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago said that the Philippines is the “world capital of political dynasties,” with 178 active dynasties.
Santiago said that voters should shun members of political dynasties, whom she called “stationary bandits,” “gluttons for power and privilege,” “the equivalent of Mafia crime families,” and “monopolies and combinations in restraint of opportunities for others.
“Some dynasties have ruled for eight years, some for 20 years, and some for the incredible period of 30 years. They have carved out a monopoly for themselves, as if only their families are qualified for public office. Some are even running for the Senate,” she said.
She lamented that the proliferation of political dynasties is a result of the 13 years of deliberate inaction by legislators on anti-political dynasty bills.
In the Senate, Santiago said 80 percent or 18 of the current 23 senators are members of political families. In the partylist system, 91 percent or 52 seats are held by millionaires and multi-millionaires.
She said that of the country’s 80 provinces, 94 percent or 73 out of 80 have political dynasties. In every province, there is at least two political families.
While the Constitution prohibits political dynasties, Santiago said Congress has failed to pass the implementing law.
“The Constitution is written in stone. And yet Congress deliberately and willfully refuses to pass a law. Each member of Congress took an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Why are we rewarding instead of punishing them?” she asked.
Ronaldo Mendoza, executive director of the AIM Policy Center and leader of a research team that looked into reigning political clans with a tight control of elective positions in local governments nationwide, said political dynasties continue to monopolize political power in many local governments like provinces, municipalities and cities nationwide, and categorized current reigning political clans as “fat” or “thin” dynasties.
Despite the Maguindanao massacre that was condemned here and abroad, the Ampatuan family continues to reign in Maguindanao, topping the list of the “fat” dynasties in the country.
Fifty-seven people, 32 of them journalists were killed in the Maguindanao massacre on November 23, 2009. The victims were brutally killed and dumped in a mass grave on a hillside in the town of Ampatuan in the southern Philippine province of Maguindanao.
Those killed were on their way to witness the filing of candidacy for a local politician when they were stopped by about one hundred armed men. Leaders of the powerful Ampatuan clan have been charged in connection with the killings but no prosecutions have been concluded. The clan’s private army and members of the local police and military are likewise implicated in the murder case.
Mendoza said “fat” dynasties are political families that have several members holding elective positions in a certain local government for three years.
A “thin” dynasty is a political clan that only has two members – like a father and son – swapping certain positions, as when a mayor-father, at the end of his maximum three terms, lets his son, who may also have reached his three-year term either as vice mayor, councilor, provincial governor or vice governor, running for each other’s position, he added.
A fat dynasty monopolizing power is an undesirable situation, he pointed out, as checks and balances among elected officials in a certain local government are difficult if they are all from one family. In Maguindanao, the “fat” Ampatuan dynasty held eight out of the 37 mayoralty posts in the province’s 37 municipalities, Mendoza said.
Other provinces with a big number of fat dynasties include Apayao province, Dinagat Islands, Siquijor and Sulu.
Mendoza said in their study, which looked into dynasties that took and kept power in the 2007 and 2010 elections, there were more fat dynasties in the political landscape in the 2010 elections.
Mendoza presented the 2012 study results yesterday in a forum attended by academe and civil society that tackled the issue of political dynasties at the Discovery Suites in Ortigas Center, Pasig.
Dubbed “Building an Inclusive Democracy,” the forum featured the AIM Policy Center study led by Mendoza, as well as academics from the University of the Philippines - National College of Public Administration, De La Salle University, and Ateneo de Manila University who are among the most dedicated scholars on dynasties, politics, and elections in the country.
Mendoza, however, said the Philippines was not alone in having the problem of political dynasty.
“We’re not the only ones with this particular phenomenon,” he said. “Let’s not beat ourselves up because of it.”
Mendoza said other Asia countries have recently seen dynasties, but thin ones, holding power, as he cited the case of Thailand where a sister of deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck, was voted into the post; North Korea where a son of Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un, succeeded the strongman; Rahul Gandhi of the Gandhi political dynasty eyed to be a prime minister; South Korea where the first female elected president Park Geun-hye is a daughter of former president Park Chung-hee.
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