Why dynasties thrive: Love, lunacy, lust and luck

Senator Bam Aquino of the fabled Cojuangco-Aquino dynasty of Tarlac has a novel approach to how to stop dynasts from running for public office. Bunutan or drawing of lots. Or raffle or lottery, in plain English.

Article II, Section 26 of the 1987 Constitution says: “The State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service, and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by law.”

Under Bam’s Senate Bill 1558, “Defining and Prohibiting Political Dynasties,” candidates who are related by blood and marriage – up to the third degree (uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, great-grandparent or great-grandchild, whether legitimate, illegitimate or adopted, including their spouses) – will be allowed to run. Only if they win will they face disqualification.

Who will be disqualified among winners who are related to one another? They have to agree to draw lots.

Section 6 of Bam’s bill (Determination of Elected Candidates with Political Dynasty Relationship) says: “Whenever it appears from the official canvass that two or more candidates elected to the same or different positions at the local or national level are related within the third degree of consanguinity or affinity and would hold office simultaneously, the Board of Canvassers, after recording this fact in its minutes, by resolution, shall hold a special public meeting to resolve the matter.

“Before conducting the drawing of lots, the Board shall first determine whether the related candidates have voluntarily entered into an agreement as to who shall withdraw in the event that both are elected. If such an agreement exists, the Board shall abide by the terms of the agreement and proclaim the agreed-upon candidate.

“In the absence of a voluntary agreement, the Board shall proceed to a drawing of lots among the candidates who are related within the third degree of consanguinity or affinity. The candidate favored by luck shall be officially proclaimed and shall have the right to assume office. The Board shall immediately issue a certificate of proclamation stating the name of the candidate favored by luck and the basis of the proclamation.

“Nothing in this section shall be construed as depriving any candidate of the right to contest the election in accordance with existing laws.”

Bam seeks to introduce a new mode for treating dynasties – luck or lottery.

Previously, dynasties either prospered or failed because of three factors – love (of country), lunacy (remember Sara D’s early morning rant? Or a suspended congressman’s meow-meow? Those are signs of lunacy) and lust (dynastic patriarchs usually have many wives). No. 1 in dynastic promiscuity is Genghis Khan. He had a thousand wives. One in every 250 males in the world today has his genes.

So now, we have the four Ls governing dynastic rule – love, lunacy, lust and luck. What a life under the dynasties.

Bam’s dynastic rule by lottery is OK. Until you look at the specifics of certain dynastic rulers.

Sen. Imee Romualdez Marcos says her brother, President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr., is bangag – high of drugs, or a drug addict – and wants him to quit and go back to their home Ilocos Norte province. You have Sen. JV Ejercito who thinks his half-brother Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, is “the bad one.” Obviously, you cannot force these people to agree to lottery in deciding who among them should be declared winners in an elective position where nearly all the contestants are dynasts.

Bam’s SB 1558 does not provide for penalties, fine or imprisonment when a candidate is recalcitrant or pasaway or refuses to follow the rules.

After all, under the Constitution, every Filipino of majority age has the right to vote and be voted upon into a public office. That is why even candidates for Philippine presidents need to meet only the barest of qualifications – a natural-born citizen of the Philippines, a registered voter, able to read and write, at least 40 years of age on election day.

The qualifications for DPWH engineers are more severe: a government license as an engineer, passing exams and interviews and, important, backing of a politico whose goodwill the engineer could repay later with flood control contracts via insertion.

Indeed, according to Ako Bicol party-list congressman Alfredo A. Garbin Jr., a lawyer and a law professor, you cannot ban dynasties without violating the Constitution’s provisions on qualifications of candidates for an elective office. He was commenting on House Bill 6771, the Anti-Dynasty Bill of Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos and Speaker Bojie Dy of Isabela. The bill prohibits relatives up to the fourth degree from holding the same elective positions in the same constituency at the same time.

Garbin says the qualifications for national elective posts are “clear, categorical and exclusive.”

Section 6, Article VI (Legislative Department) says: “No person shall be a Member of the House of Representatives unless he is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines and, on the day of the election, is at least 25 years of age, able to read and write and, except the party-list representatives, a registered voter in the district in which he shall be elected, and a resident thereof for a period of not less than one year immediately preceding the day of the election.”

Section 3, Article VI says: “No person shall be a senator unless he is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines and on the day of the election, is at least 35 years of age, able to read and write, a registered voter and a resident of the Philippines for not less than two years immediately preceding the day of the election.”

Nothing in these qualifications say two relatives cannot run and win simultaneously for the same office.

“Congress has no authority to add to or subtract from these qualifications,” Garbin asserts, citing the Supreme Court’s ruling in Albano v. Commission on Elections (2023), which struck down attempts to impose additional qualifications as an unconstitutional amendment of the Charter.

He frets that the various anti-dynasty proposals face a “fundamental constitutional barrier” that Congress cannot address through ordinary legislation.

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