Next Senate: 3 Tulfos, 2 Cayetanos, 2 Villars, 2 Estradas?

The next Philippine Senate will most probably win a Guinness record as the only legislature in the whole world which will be virtually controlled by five families. Being dominated by family dynasties is anathema to a genuine democracy. And when more than half of the population is living below the poverty line, there is indeed no genuine democracy. The people are bought, corrupted, pressured, hoodwinked, terrorized, and fed with fake news and outright, blatant lies.

And if all the three Dutertes should finally run, (by substitution) namely Digong, Polong, and Baste, that will be the day. And should Erwin and Ben both succeed, they shall join brother Raffy who is an incumbent senator. Pia Cayetano will rejoin her brother Alan Peter. Camille will also join her brother Mark. Her mom, Cynthia, is term-limited. There are already two sons of Erap, Jinggoy and JV. Can you imagine an august body which used to be the home of such iconic solons as Claro M. Recto, Lorenzo M. Tañada, Jose W. Diokno, Raul Manglapus, Jovito Salonga, and Ninoy Aquino, is now the home of Robinhood Padilla, Lito Lapid, Bong Revilla, and perhaps, soon, of Manny Pacquiao and Tito Sotto again, and perhaps of Philip Salvador, and Erwin and Ben Tulfo?

Is it really possible that a father and two sons will sit in the same chamber of the legislature? Can you imagine in your mind a scenario in a legislative body, where the father presides as the Senate president, the eldest son is the Senate pro tempore and the youngest the majority floor leader? Did it ever occur in your imagination that the elder brother Raffy will be interpellated by the younger sibling, Erwin? And then the other brother, Ben, with his booming voice would raise a point of order? Or the younger brother, Alan Peter making a motion and being seconded by her elder sister, Pia? Then Mark Villar raising his hand to interject, being interrupted by youngest sister Camille who would inquire what is the parliamentary status of the motion under consideration? It would be a comedy of errors.

Then there’s the Estrada/Ejercito brothers, Jinggoy, the more experienced, more mature, and more seasoned, and JV, the so-called "the good one". Erap has done so much to and for the country. He was a mayor and a senator himself before becoming vice president during the FVR presidency, and then president for a while before he was disrupted by his vice president, the astute, clever and extremely wise GMA. Then Erap's legal wife, Dra. Loi was likewise elected senator. The greatest joy that a father would naturally feel is to see his two sons (from different mothers) sitting side by side in the same legislative chamber. No other father was given that blessing, not even the late president Ferdinand Marcos Sr. He did not live long enough to see both daughter Imee and son Bongbong becoming senators, albeit not in the same terms.

Don Filemon Sotto and Don Vicente Sotto (Tito Sen's famous grandfather) did not become senators at the same time. The Osmeñas, scions of the late president Don Sergio Osmeña Sr. did not sit in the Philippine Senate simultaneously. First, it was Serging or Sergio Osmeña Jr. who ran for vice president and lost, and also ran for president against Marcos Sr. in 1969 and lost again. John "Sonny" Osmeña, then Serge (for a number of times). Serge lost to Nerissa Soon Ruiz for congressman of that old district which included both Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu. But he won as senator, perhaps the most politically successful among the Don Sergio grandchildren next to Sonny. Lito was one of the best Cebu governors like his lolo and papa. But he never became a senator. He also lost his bid for both the vice presidency and the presidency.

Going back to the present time and the immediate future, I am sad that instead of our democracy progressing and our people becoming wiser and more discerning, we are actually going down the hill, gradually deteriorating from a true democracy into a country dominated by four or five families.

This is a nation of highly-educated people being governed by a few trapo dynastic families, moneyed, powerful and smart enough to believe that we are all a bunch of stupid fools. The next election will either prove them right or prove them wrong. The answer is in our hands.