Certain lawmakers lament that President Marcos, instead of certifying the anti-dynasty and party-list reform bills as urgent, merely tagged them as priority measures in his meeting with congressional leaders.
Yesterday, two dynasts – Speaker Faustino Dy III and BBM’s congressman son Sandro – jointly filed a bill banning dynasties. But there was still no certification of urgency from the President.
Malacañang explained that an urgent certification is allowed only during calamities and emergencies. But isn’t our politics, rotten to the core, in a state of emergency?
Also, what calamity or emergency might have warranted the urgent certification that made the House of Representatives in the previous Congress pass the bill creating the Maharlika Fund within a record 17 days?
Oh well, having been a senator and congressman, BBM is probably just acknowledging realpolitik, knowing how contentious it would be to finally legislate, nearly 40 years since it was mandated by the 1987 Constitution, the prohibition on political dynasties.
House Bill 6771 filed by Bojie Dy and Ilocos Norte 1st District Rep. Sandro Marcos meets the ideals promoted in the constitutional prohibition on dynasties, notably equal access to opportunities for public service.
It bans spouses, siblings and relatives within the fourth civil degree of affinity or consanguinity of an elected public official from holding an elective post in government.
The sponsors’ argument for the measure pushes all the right buttons: “This bill is a faithful execution of the above constitutional provision – a strategic reform for good governance, and an assertion of the principle that public office is a public trust. It aims to uphold the integrity, competitiveness, and inclusivity of democratic institutions by ensuring that public office is earned through meritocracy and public confidence. Moreover, the bill reinforces the country’s alignment with international democratic standards, bolsters compliance with human rights and anti-corruption commitments, and advances equitable political participation across all sectors of society.”
Noble intentions, however, rarely guarantee approval of a bill in Congress. Especially if the proposal goes against lawmakers’ self-preservation instincts.
After 38 years of shameless dynasty building, the best that can be expected of lawmakers at this point are minor concessions.
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House Deputy Speaker Janette Garin provided a glimpse of the colossal challenge ahead.
How do you dismantle a system where four sets of siblings sit in a 24-member Senate, where spouses serve simultaneously as governor and vice governor, or as mayor and vice mayor while their siblings and in-laws hold nearly all congressional district seats?
Through “clustering.” This is another word to be added to our lexicon for 2025, on top of allocable, forthwith, small committee and basura.
Clustering, according to Garin, is the compromise being eyed by the dynasts dominating the House of Representatives, if they are to meet the public expectations raised by BBM and Speaker Dy to finally pass an anti-dynasty law.
Garin explained to “Storycon” on One News last Wednesday that under this proposal, relatives within the second degree of blood or marriage ties will be barred from occupying posts within the same governance “clusters.”
The clusters are national – meaning president, vice president and the Senate – as well as provincial, city or municipal and barangay. Garin said a regional cluster may also be included.
For now, the party-list groups are part of the House cluster. But with reforms eyed in the party-list system, this matter is uncertain.
Garin also does not rule out the possibility that the proposed reforms will restore the limits set in the Constitution for the party-list to cover only specific marginalized sectors. Whether the large party-list bloc in the House will go along with this is another story.
If passed, we will no longer see siblings, half-siblings and parent-child tandems sitting simultaneously in the Senate. Or spouses or parent and child serving together as provincial governor and vice governor, or mayor and vice mayor, short-circuiting the system of checks and balances.
But under this compromise, the dynasts can still simultaneously occupy posts in each cluster. Meaning a dynastic president can still have close relatives serving simultaneously in the Senate, the House, as governor, mayor and barangay captain.
Dynasties are prohibited in the Sangguniang Kabataan and the Bangsamoro region.
Also, once term limits are reached, there will be no prohibition on direct succession by clan members for each cluster.
Direct succession is at the heart of dynasty-building, and any anti-dynasty law that allows it will be a farce, a bone thrown at anti-dynasty proponents.
Garin told us that with so many clans now benefiting from the system, dismantling dynasties will have to start with baby steps. For an anti-dynasty bill to have a reasonable chance of hurdling the dynasty-dominated Congress, compromises are needed, she pointed out.
She added that even if BBM certified the anti-dynasty bill as urgent, the contentious issues would take at least three or four months to iron out. And why waste time hammering out a bill with little chance of approval by the dynasts in the House?
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You can tell that politics has become one of the most lucrative enterprises in this country by the greed of clans to occupy nearly every available elective and appointive seat in their turfs, all the way down to the barangays. If their fur babies could run for office, we’d see even pampered dogs and cats occupying the seats that members of the ruling clan can’t fill.
The question is how the people will take a blatantly watered-down anti-dynasty law.
It could reinforce an idea now being tossed around about the abolition of Congress and allowing another Ferdinand Marcos to just rule by decree. It will save the nation trillions of pesos in lawmakers’ pork barrel, maintenance and operating expenses, and public funds lost to kickbacks.
Another option: increasingly, proposals to just terminate Congress with extreme prejudice no longer sounds – well – extreme.
A less draconian alternative is for the Supreme Court to rule on the petitions for the SC to compel Congress to carry out its constitutional mandate, and effectively order the political families to moderate their greed.