Political Dynasty: A Pervasive Social Issue in the Philippines

Tesoro-Ramos, Mhelygene D.

University of Northern Philippines

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INTRODUCTION

The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines states in Article II Section 26: "The State shall

guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service, and prohibit political dynasties as may

be defined by law."

The intent of the framers of the Constitution is clear: political dynasties are prohibited but

this first should be defined by law. Legal luminaries (Cruz, 2010) proffer that the prohibition in

the Constitution requires an enabling law, the absence of which makes the declared policy of the

state unenforceable.

Alas, while various bills have been passed, all of these have been shot down in the

Congress. One may speculate as to the motivation behind the non-passage of the anti-political

dynasty bills but that is a deviating issue.

While the Constitution is indeed the supreme law of the land, in a democracy, the

sovereign power is in the people through the ballot. The election of officials in the government

service is always in the hands of the ordinary Juan and Marias in the society.

Issues on political dynasty delve closely in the homes of the people at home. A legal look

is insufficient since jurisprudence, while controlling, can not be digested by the hungry stomachs

in the community. The law may be clear for lawyers but it is distorted in the eyes of the masses

due to factors such as poverty, education, and cultural differences.

Looking closely into the cultural aspect of a societal issues, it is imperative that one starts

with understanding the basic principles surrounding the issue. Thus, this term paper seeks to look

into political dynasties in the socio-cultural aspect. Deviating slightly from the legal concept, the

goal is to understand the prevalence of families controlling certain provinces and the reason why

they remain in power.

Further, this term paper will delve on the issues closely knit with political dynasty such as

its causes in patronage politics, its effects resulting to poverty, and the individual provincial

culture in the society.

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BODY

PRELIMINARIES

Political democracies are important because they facilitate and sustain broader and more

inclusive processes of economic and human development. The capacity of political democracies

to engender inclusive growth makes its discussion crucial to the formulation of effective

development policy agendas. Scholars associate political democracy with more predictable long-

run economic growth, enhanced macroeconomic stability, more rational management of

economic and political shocks and crises, and improved distributional outcomes (Acemoglu and

Robinson, 2006; Rodrik, 2007).

In a 2011 Case of Navarro vs. Ermita (GR No. 180050, April 2011), Supreme Court

Senior Justice Antonio Carpio defined political dynasties as a ‘phenomenon that concentrates

political power and public resources within the control of a few families whose members

alternately hold elective offices, deftly skirting term limits’.

Mendoza, et. al. (2020) theorized that political democracies guarantee equal voice in

government decision making through a range of mechanisms like one-person-one-vote, equality

in political participation, and free speech. A political democracy has the potential to cultivate an

environment that is responsive to the needs of its citizens that, often, brings about higher levels

of human capital investments and more inclusive and equitable social and economic outcomes.

However, underdeveloped democratic institutions could be associated with weak political

participation and thus produce, in some cases, political dynasties.

Thus, there exist a clear connection of a weak political participation and the production of

political dynasties. While everyone is guaranteed to meet the basic requirements to running for

office, the financial considerations in campaigning are more often than not, the reason why not

everyone can run for office.

All the more reason why political dynasties flourish is that some families have already

established themselves in the political arena which paves way for patronage politics as one of the

factors affecting this socio-political issue.

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PATRONAGE POLITICS

The Philippine Constitution institutionalized the primacy of the family in the Philippines

as a policy of the state. In relation to this, elite Filipino Families often perform a broad range of

economic, social, and political functions.

McCoy (1994) found two key elements that directly contributed to the formation of

powerful political families—the rise of ‘rents’ as a significant share of the nations economy and a

simultaneous attenuation of central government control over the provinces. The results are the

privatization of public resources which has strengthened a few families while weakening the

state’s resources and its bureaucratic apparatus.

In the same vein, it was found that many politicians try to transform their electoral offices

into lasting family assets, building a political dynasty. Once entrenched, influential politicans

often work to bequeath power and position to their children, in effect seeking to transform the

public office that they have won into a private legacy for their family.

Hutchcroft PD (1998) noted that As patrimonial politics became ingrained in the

Philippine state in the post-war period, political dynasties were also strengthened and the need

for the oligarchy to entrench itself in Philippine politics through dynasties was intensified.

The scholarship in this field recognizes variants of political dynasties within Filipino

politics. McCoy observes that the main ways political dynasties perpetuate themselves is through

political violence and rent-seeking, with the former prevalent in the provinces and the latter

concentrated in the cities. These political families generally fuse local power with national access

by delivering blocs of votes ‘by whatever means.’

McCoy observes the Lopezes as the most prominent cases of rent-seeking families or

those that used their commercial and legal skills to become the country’s leading rent-seeking

entrepreneur. While doing so, a younger Lopez maintained the family’s political base in Iloilo

and used their entrepreneurial background to bolster his position in the national elective office.

On the other hand, Mojares (1994) notes that in addition to economic, military and

bureaucratic means, another power base for political dynasties is through electoral politics and

networks. He further points to the Osmeñas of Cebu as an example. By winning ‘mandates’ from
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the voters in their local province, which comprises 25 percent of the population of the

Philippines, this family have successfully extended their power base from the local to the

national level of politics.

Building on the work of Mojares, one can look directly to the Marcos’ of Ilocos Norte. At

present, the namesake of the former president will be proclaimed president after his 31 million

win in the last election. The Singson’s of Ilocos Sur have ruled the province for almost three

decades. Both families have solidified what political scholars have called the “Solid North”

which is one of the biggest political bases that have elected various politicians in the national

scale.

Indeed, looking at the prevalence of patronage politics, it can be readily concluded that

coming from a strong political family makes it easier to enter the realm of politics. Not only is

the political machinery ready but the electorate has already have a name recall of the surname

that has served them for ages.

Boiling down to the cultural need of stability and consistency, the election of familiar

surnames during the exercise of the right of suffrage is deeply entwined with patronage politics.

While some critics may say that there exist a political blindness to the gravity of electing an

entire family into office, another argument is that the presumed stability of having consistent

policies in a locality over a gamble towards a changing policy through a new leadership which

may cause degradation in different aspects of the community.

Summing the scholarly works in the above discussion, the rise of political dynasties is

deeply rooted. It is not merely an isolated case in clustered provinces but has become a part of

culture enshrined by long practice as well as the generally accepted fact of its existence.

Patronage politics is not just the cause, however. The look into the primacy of the family in this

country also adds vigor to the existing, as well as arising, political dynasties. Filipinos, known

for close familial ties, give primacy to the family as a basic unit of the society as well as what

runs the society.

Moving forward, the effects of political dynasties on the society is unmistakably present.

Furthering this discussion is an outlook by scholars in the field of political science and a look

into the present society based on their work.

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POLITICAL DYNASTY AND THE SOCIETY: ITS EFFECTS

The established presence of families running a society brings adverse effects on the

country including the perpetuation of poverty and underdevelopment, the propagation of political

and socio-economic inequality and the prevalence of massive corruption. (Tadem, 2020)

Contrary to the concept of the populace regarding stability, political dynasties actually

breed incoherent economic policies that has stunted the development of a strong state apparatus

whereby personal favors and disfavors of those currently in power is a critical determinant of

business success and failure.

Monsod (2013) cites empirical evidence showing a significant relationship between

political dynasties and lower per capita income, higher incidence of poverty, and lower human

development indices. Data on this show specifically, lower primary elementary completion rates

in areas where political dynasties have ruled.

The wealth gap in Congress is also an evident effect of political dynasties. Members of

political dynasties in Congress are wealthier, as evidenced by their statements of assets,

liabilities and net worth, than their non-dynasty colleagues’. (Monsod, 2013)

A 2012 study found that political dynasties have also perpetuated political inequality

‘which reinforces the unequal distribution of political power thereby producing a type of low

level democratic equilibrium where mutually reinforcing forces of weakened democratic

institutions lead to poor economic outcomes and vice versa’

In a published editorial by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, it was mentioned that political

dynasties are symptomatic of the country’s development because many of these political families

come from very poor regions and provinces that rely heavily on the central government. These

political clans act as “channels for Manila’s beneficence,” deriving kickbacks from public works

and other public projects. In the process of ensuring funding support from Manila, ‘they neglect

the programs to foster commerce and development in their territories, a task that requires vision,

competence and ethics which they sorely lack.’

In a similar vein, (Cruz, N. 2013) similarly writes that socio-economic and political

inequalities are further perpetuated with the association of political dynasties with massive
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corruption. This in itself is a ‘form of threat to democracy’, a kind of distortion in social

relations, and makes the field of competition (such as political competition) uneven. It was also

pointed out that when a family member takes over when the term of an incumbent runs out, there

are no checks and balances in place over the process.

Citing now Mendoza (2012) and representing here for basis of clarity is their Table 8 in

their study:

In the table above, the researchers in the study notes that:

“Measures for poverty incidence, poverty gap, and poverty severity are consistently

higher in districts with dynastic legislators compared to other areas. Specifically, jurisdictions

with dynastic legislators tend to have poverty incidence of five percentage points, poverty gap

that is one percentage point and poverty severity that is half a percentage point higher than other

areas. These results are statistically significant. Not surprisingly, the average income of districts

with dynastic representatives is lower than that those with non-dynastic representatives. Again,

this finding is statistically significant.”

In the same study, it discussed that poverty incidence measures the proportion of families

below the poverty line. The poverty gap refers to the average income shortfall in proportion to

the poverty line of poor families. It is the average amount of additional income necessary to

bring a family above the poverty threshold expressed as a proportion of the poverty line. Poverty

severity is the squared poverty gap divided by the number of poor families. The value of this

measure is its sensitivity to the income distribution among the poor.

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Looking through their study shows that the existence of political dynasties are

empirically and statistically related to the prevalence of poverty in the community where they

dominate. While poverty indicia is still present in non-dynastic areas, the significant difference

between these two areas are statistically significant and determinant of the fact that some areas

are more inclined to poverty due to the presence of political dynasties.

Alternatively, political dynasties could also produce strong development outcomes to the

extent that they effectively leverage their longer stints in power towards sustained reforms. It is

possible that the longer and more secure tenures enjoyed by political dynasties could enable them

to pursue long term structural reforms, including the unpopular but necessary ones. Dynastic

politicians operate within a longer time horizon and as such have the opportunity to enact

comprehensive reform agendas. (Dal Bo and Rossi, 2009 and Conconi, Facchini and Zanardi,

2011)

While contentious, a Pulse Asia survey of 1800 registered voters conducted in January

2016 revealed that public opinion on political dynasties in the Philippines is split. The poll

showed that 32 percent agreed that ‘one should not vote for candidates who have children,

spouses, siblings or parents who are current or former elected government officials’, while a

further 34 percent disagreed, and the remaining 34 percent were undecided.

Seemingly a study in the past, the results of the 2016 and 2022 national elections is

conclusive proof that the populace does not put primacy into the existence or absence of political

dynasties when it comes to the exercise of their right of suffrage.

A look at the recently concluded election results would show that while there were

political dynasties that have been toppled in power, the majority of the winners in the senate and

congress are still products of political families.

Indeed, the emergence of political dynasties, however, can lead to state capture. The state

apparatus can be hijacked by the elite to further their interests. The elite can channel government

resources to their industries through preferential agreements, special concessions, and subsidies.

Monetary policy can also be used for inflationary policies that primarily benefit the elite (Desaj

et al 2003). These aggravate income inequality and result in imbalanced or exclusive growth.

The Philippine state apparatus, for example, has been said to be especially susceptible to capture
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because of its evolution towards the total centralization of patronage resources. The evolution of

the Philippine state apparatus throughout the last century has made it progressively easier for the

political elite to engage in rent-seeking activities and use public resources for private gain.
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CONCLUSION

The existence of a political dynasty indeed a pervasive social issue in the Philippines.

Empirical data from discussion earlier stated provides a significant statistical relationship

between a ruling family clan and the incidence of poverty.

While there is no direct causal link that political dynasties is the root of societal issues, it

cannot be denied that the existence of power in a family is detrimental to the political situation

which has impact in the economic sector.

The discussions of the academe sheds light to the impact of political dynasties in the

Philippines. In sum, these scholarly works point to not only the existence of political dynasty but

as to the rationale of its existence. Peering through, one can see that political dynasties exist

because of the primacy of families and the centralization of power in the elite. Rent seeking and

political violence are two essential factors which leads to the existence of political dynasties.

English prose literature could have described the situation with the quote that “power corrupts.”

Democracy is truly exercised in the power of the people to elect their representatives.

This is the true essence of a representative democracy. For a century now, the Filipino people

have chosen their leaders to represent them. From lawyers to farmers, men and women, have

held the highest position in the land. It is the genuine essence of democracy that people get to

choose who will represent them, who will voice out their thoughts, and who will fight their

fights.

Looking into the ballot and having only one name to vote, is that a hallmark of

democracy? One can only ask.

The discussion on the pervasiveness of political dynasties is deeply rooted in the culture

of Filipinos. It is a discussion about how the Filipinos have always favored the patriarchy, the

capitalist movement, and how all these factors have comingled into forming the public

perception of a leader. In the advent of social media, the factors of online campaigning and

disinformation are essential variables also in the discussion for future research endeavors.
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