Political dynasties more vice than virtue

I remember that a Senate committee led by Senator Leticia Shahani conducted a study on Filipino culture. The result of the study listed 10 of our top values, among which is family closeness. Shahani then equated this value as a virtue even if it can also be a vice. To the Filipino, family comes first. From the internet, I have read that for most Filipinos, family is the reason why they study, work, or do the things they do every single day. When the English author, physician, and philosopher Sir Thomas Browne, explained the phrase “charity begins at home” he meant that people should deal with the needs of people close to them before they think about helping others. Browne could be exemplifying the closeness of the Filipino family.

Shahani was among the senators first elected under the 1987 Philippine Constitution. Our fundamental law listed as among our basic principles and policies that the “State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service, and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by law.” I recently wrote in this corner the rationale of that state policy as stated by Constitutional Commissioner Rene Sarmiento. He explained that “By including this provision, (in the charter) we widen the opportunities of competent, young and promising poor candidates to occupy important positions in the government”. It looked though that his emphasis was on equal access to elective position for the rich and the poor alike rather than prohibiting political dynasties.

Despite the seriousness of this political dynasty issue as discussed by the 1986 Constitutional Commission, not much literature has found its way in the leading textbooks on the constitution by our Constitutional Law authorities. It was refreshing to find the instructive commentary of Atty. Rene Gorospe, Law Faculty of the University of Santo Tomas, in his book Political Law. He opined that “To the extent that the access to public office and service is restricted or otherwise constricted by any means to concentrate powers in the hands of a few specially entrenched families, to that extent may the idea of a participatory democracy be defeated and rendered illusory. If a handful of families believe that public office is some sort of heirloom to be passed on from generation to generation then that would effectively serve to shut out those who may be considered outsiders - the non members.”

There is no doubt that political families dot our country. Leaders related by either consanguinity or affinity that control the political environment are surging. Even those areas, where, years ago, their elective leaders came from diverse families, their officials are now members of few controlling bloodlines. Relatives rallying behind the leadership of kin. After all, blood is proverbially thicker than water and family closeness is, according to Shahani, a virtue. So, in the local fields, we see mayors and vice mayors belonging to one family and their children members of the sanggunian. This is also true in many provinces. The hierarchical elective positions of local government units seem to be the domain of only few families. The Marcoses dominate Ilocos Norte while the Dutertes reign in Davao.

What is wrong with that? Especially if that is the will of the people! The invocation of the democratic principle of the rule of the majority sounds good but in the light of what is unraveling in present Philippine politics, that defensive argument is the highest of hypocrisies which Sir Thomas Browne debunked as early as 1642 with his famous quote “charity begins at home”.

This is where Shahani sounded cautious. Virtue becomes vice. Are we not witnessing government projects which are administered by high political officials being awarded to people with links to members of political power wielders? This, in effect, is self-help. Indeed, why award the prosecution of projects to strangers when relatives can do them? Sadly, the evil reality is that political dynasties rule. Unless we discard candidates belonging to political dynasties, we are all doomed.