EDITORIAL – Family business

Will there ever be a limit to the reach of political dynasties? This question must be asked if the nation wants to maintain a system of checks and balances, discourage corruption and strengthen democracy at the grassroots. In both the national and local governments, different branches are supposed to exercise oversight. This cannot happen when members of a single family occupy key positions in government. Members of the same political party may also cover each other’s backs, but party loyalties are generally more fragile than blood ties.

What happens when the city mayor’s daughter is the vice mayor and therefore head of the city council and a son is a barangay captain? This is now the case in Davao City, where Mayor Rodrigo Duterte swears government resources were not used for the campaign of his son Paolo, who filed his candidacy for barangay captain at the last minute. In La Union, there is an Ortega  everywhere. Manuel is provincial governor, his brother is a mayor and two other brothers are now barangay captains together with the governor’s son. The mayor’s son is now a barangay councilman.

It’s a free country and voters make their choices in free elections. Those who have built political dynasties argue that they could not have remained in power for so long if their performance disappointed voters. That may be so, but dynasties also tend to resort to other methods of perpetuating their rule when their performance falls below public expectations. These methods include rigging the vote, corruption, harassment and outright murder. All this is easier when a single family is so firmly entrenched and has invested heavily in political patronage it controls all aspects of government, from law enforcement to the judiciary and local legislature.

The shamelessness that has come to characterize dynasty-building in this year’s two electoral exercises also raises questions about the lure of government positions that are supposed to pay so little. What’s in it for these families? The public can only suspect the worst. Someone has to put the brakes on this. It can’t be a healthy democracy  when public office is regarded as a birthright and politics becomes the main family enterprise.