EDITORIAL — A genuine anti-dynasty law

At least 24 bills have been filed at the House of Representatives and several more at the Senate, seeking to implement the constitutional prohibition on political dynasties.

The first such bills, filed late last year, prompted President Marcos to say that he did not want a “half-baked” measure that will merely incur the ire of the people and further stoke outrage over the massive corruption being uncovered in flood control and other infrastructure projects.

Even as the number of bills has grown, fears persist that Congress, whose members mostly belong to dynasties, will pass a measure so watered down that it will effectively legitimize the perpetuation of family-controlled political monopolies. Such a law, it is feared, will then be cited as compliance with the constitutional mandate to pass an enabling law prohibiting dynasties.

Such fears have prompted 31 business and civil society organizations to release a statement calling for a strong, genuine anti-dynasty measure.

The 31 groups, which include several of the country’s biggest business organizations, rejected the bill filed by Speaker Faustino Dy III and President Marcos’ son, Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos, describing it as a “pro-dynasty” measure that allows members of a clan to simultaneously occupy multiple elective posts and directly succeed relatives for particular positions.

It’s not the first time that an effort is underway to implement the constitutional prohibition on dynasties. But Congress after Congress, instead of carrying out the constitutional mandate, expanded the number of dynasts in both the House and the Senate. Even the party-list system became a path to expand the reach of dynasties.

Today the House is controlled by dynasts while the Senate has four pairs of siblings in a 24-member chamber. Both the President and Vice President belong to entrenched dynasties.

In the 2022 elections, then presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said “politics is all about performance” and dynasties are not intrinsically bad. This time, the President himself is pushing for a strong law to curb dynasty building. Malacañang has explained that the President has seen the abuses in political monopolies and is listening to the people.

Probes have linked dynasts to the massive corruption scandal in public works projects and budgeting anomalies. The anti-corruption crackdown, launched by the President in July last year, is now seen to be faltering as the probes lead to his relatives and officials close to him.

But the corruption scandal has also opened an opportunity for the passage of an enabling law that genuinely bans dynasties. The public must move to ensure that the President and Congress won’t falter in this effort and ignore the opportunity.