By TONY LOPEZ
How do you tell the clans that control 70% of Congress to go, kill themselves?
And how do you tell the families that control 80% of all local governments to go drown themselves into rivers unprotected by ghost flood control projects?
Answer: Ask them to endorse a genuine anti-dynasty bill.
An anti-dynasty bill has been filed by two of the Philippines’ long entrenched dynasts—Rep. Sandro Marcos of Ilocos Norte and Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III of Isabela.
A 100-year-old dynasty
The Marcos is a 100-year-old dynasty, beginning with the election in 1925 of Mariano Marcos as congressman of the second district of Ilocos Norte. Mariano was the father of Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, father of the incumbent President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr., who is the father of Congressman Sandro Marcos. FM is the longest serving president, 20 years, including 14 years under martial rule.
Speaker Dy comes from a 61-year-old dynasty, from 1964, with Faustino Ng Dy Sr., a mestizo son of a Chinese immigrant from Guimba, Nueva Ecija. An ambulant trader, Dy Sr. settled in Isabela and nurtured the province’s most powerful political dynasty, serving as mayor of Cauayan, Isabela from 1964 to 1971 and governor of Isabela from 1971 until 1986 and from 1988 to 1992. He was the longest serving Isabela governor,19 years. Dy Sr. married twice—to Erlinda Sanchez and Natividad de Guzman. Erlinda produced three children—Faustino Jr., Napoleon, and Bill. Natividad produced four sons who became politicians—Faustino III (the current speaker), Benjamin, Caesar and Victor. Speaker Dy has been in politics for 42 years, undefeated.
The patriarch Faustino Ng Dy Sr. had a reputation for being brave and was said to been engaged in gunfights with thugs.
Ferdinand Sr. was a UP marksman and at 18, was accused of having assassinated Julio Nalundasan, the political rival of Mariano, in 1935. Defending himself, as a brand new lawyer-bar topnotcher, Marcos was acquitted by the Supreme Court.
Eliminating enemies with extreme prejudice is not new nor extraneous when building a political dynasty.
An anti-Marcos reaction
The anti-dynasty and the party-list provisions in the 1987 Constitution both were a reaction, by Corazon Aquino and her cohorts, to Marcos Sr.’s long reign. A party-list or multiplicity of parties supposedly was to prevent a duopoly of parties imposed by the Liberal Party and Nacionalista Party of the 1930s til the 1970s. Marcos Sr. completely dominated both the LP and NP.
There is a third constitutional provision to prevent the rise of dynasties—term limits. Only one term, of six years, for president. Senators are limited to two consecutive terms. Congressmen and local officials are limited to three consecutive terms of three years each.
All three provisions—anti-dynasty, party-list, and term limits—produced the opposite, nefarious, deleterious effect—the rise of dynasties and their long reigns. Today, dynasties cannot be eliminated, except by—suicide.
Fourth degree ban
House Bill 6771, the Anti-Dynasty Bill of Sandro and Bojie Dy says “spouses, siblings, and relatives within the fourth civil degree of affinity or consanguinity of a duly elected public officer are disqualified from simultaneously holding identified elective public positions.”
All other anti-dynasty bills ban only second degree relatives. And they make distinctions between local elective positions and national positions—president, vice president and senator.
Other anti-dynasty bills allow the present anomalous setup in the Senate where you have four sets of siblings serving at the same time as senators—Alan Peter and Pia Cayetano, Mark and Camille Villar, Raffy and Erwin Tulfo, and JV Ejercito and Jinggoy Estrada.
The Sandro and Bojie bill will not allow a family-affair Senate. It bans — two elective national positions at the same time by a single family; two local positions at the same time, by the same family, but only at district level; two elective provincial positions at the same time in the same province by the same family.
HB 6771 is a faithful execution of the anti-dynasty provision of the Constitution, Article Il, Section 26, “the State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by law.”
“This constitutional provision embodies …a political system characterized by fairness, equal opportunity, and genuine public service,” Sandro and Bojie note.
What is a political dynasty
HB 6771 defines “political dynasty” as “the concentration and dominance of elective political power by persons related to one another”. A “political dynasty relationship” is “an existing familial relationship with an incumbent elective public official, such as a spouse, direct ascendant or descendant, sibling or any other person related within the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity whether legitimate or illegitimate, full or half-blood.”
Any person with a political dynasty relationship shall not be allowed to hold and occupy public office in any of the following manner:
1. If a person is an incumbent or candidate for any elective national position, the spouse and the above relatives are prohibited to simultaneously hold any elective national position;
No relatives in the same district
2. If a person is an incumbent or candidate for the position of member of the House of Representatives, the spouse and the above relatives are prohibited to simultaneously hold the same position within the same legislative district;
3. If a person is an incumbent or candidate for any elective provincial position, the spouse and the above relatives are prohibited to simultaneously hold any elective position in the same provincial government;
4. If a person is an incumbent or candidate for any elective city or municipal office, the spouse and the above relatives are prohibited to simultaneously hold any elective position in the same city or municipal government.
5. If a person is an incumbent or candidate for any elective barangay office, the spouse and the above relatives are prohibited tov simultaneously hold any position in the same barangay.
The Sandro-Bojie bill provides no fines nor prison penalties for violations. The penalty is: You are not allowed to run and your votes won’t be counted. Enforcement is up to the Comelec. Disclosure if he/she is a dynast is up to the candidate.