Institutionalizing dynasties

After institutionalizing thievery in the national budget process, lawmakers now look set to institutionalize political dynasties.

We’re talking here of both fat and thin dynasties. Not the popular Tsinoy brand of butong pakwan or watermelon seeds and other food products.

“Thin” refers to vertical dynastic growth, through direct succession by relatives. Direct succession is the essence of dynasty-building. But if lawmakers can redefine “forthwith” and “session” to suit their needs, they can redefine dynastic succession.

“Fat” refers to horizontal girth, through the occupation of multiple posts by members of the same clan at every level of government. To illustrate: relatives can serve simultaneously as congressman, governor, mayor, council member and barangay captain – plus one national position – because these are parts of different government “clusters.”

It’s unclear if this simultaneous occupation of multiple posts will be extended to similar positions in contiguous provinces within the same region, for an even fatter dynasty. Meaning, will members of the same clan be allowed to simultaneously hold positions in the provinces gerrymandered into north and south?

The House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms approved last Tuesday the anti-dynasty bill filed with impressive speed and enthusiasm by two dynasts, Speaker Faustino Dy III and Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos.

When this bill was first propounded, Malacañang said that Marcos’ dad the President wanted a “strong” anti-dynasty bill, not one that is “half-baked” or rushed – the presumption being that BBM knew that his son’s measure is a joke.

Probably believing that BBM was sincere about this, over 20 other anti-dynasty measures were filed at the House, and a couple more at the Senate where four sets of siblings account for a third of the total membership.

Today, expectations of a genuine anti-dynasty bill are being dashed as quickly as those for any big fish getting caught in the net full of gaping holes in BBM’s crackdown on corruption.

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Several congressmen have withdrawn their support for the bill passed by the House panel, in protest over the “watered down” measure.

Meanwhile, the buzz in the Marites network is that the anti-corruption crackdown is on hold for use as leverage in the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte. The VP has become an existential threat to the Marcos-Romualdez clan, and it seems that all urgent concerns are now taking a back seat to her removal from the 2028 presidential race.

The prospect of jail without bail, of life in prison, should prove to be a powerful incentive for getting lawmakers to at least use the same English dictionary as Malacañang.

Maybe this scenario is just the dirty imagination of the anti-Duterte forces, which Quezon City Rep. Bong Suntay can counter with his own wild flights of fancy involving attractive women.

But even before Congressmen Marcos and Dy filed their bill, Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin  had already alerted us in an interview about the shape that the measure was taking in the dynasty-packed House.

Garin had told us on One News’ “Storycon” last year that if we wanted a bill with a reasonable chance of hurdling the House, we might have to live with the concept of “clustering.”

All along we thought BBM truly wanted the genuine article in curbing dynasty-building.

I’ve written about this, but just to recap: under clustering, members of the same clan up to a particular civil degree of family ties (the House approved only up to the second degree) can simultaneously occupy only two positions in the national cluster: president or VP and one seat in the Senate.

One member of the clan can occupy only one seat in each of the local government clusters: congressional district, provincial government, city or municipal post including council and then the barangay.

Still unclear is how to classify the cluster of party-list groups, whose constituency is national but who sit in the House. The party-list system has become so hopelessly bastardized, turning our government into a no-party system. Marginal representation is a joke.

Enabled by legislation, the party list has been abused as a backdoor to Congress by major political parties, dynasties, religious and special interest groups – and they don’t even have to represent any particular sector.

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Further tightening of the restrictions on dynasty-building could be carried out later, Garin told us.

The problem is that the amendments to produce a genuine ban on dynasties may take another 40 years before these are passed by Congress.

The kindest commentary on the latest zarzuela at the House is that the approval of the Dy-Marcos bill is meant as a trial balloon, to gauge public opinion.

So express your sentiments on the watered-down bill, folks.

Any campaign against corruption in this country intrinsically involves curbing dynasty-building.

But in both endeavors, the administration is faltering. You can almost picture the dynasts gathering in the panic room, asking each other: can we really say goodbye to all that?

What this bill will do, if it’s the version that dynast BBM signs, is that it will be cited as sufficient compliance with the constitutional mandate to pass an enabling law banning dynasties.

With this enabling law, dynasties fat and thin are effectively institutionalized. Happy days are guaranteed forever for the clans.

That can be more drool-inducing for the manyakis in Congress than the sight of Anne Curtis. Oh, sorry, manyakis, this is just a bad analogy. Where’s your sense of humor?