Submitted by Vox Bikol on
1. What is a political dynasty? It is one family's control, occupation or holding by succession or switching among its members of elective positions in government. Family may be the immediate family (husband and wife and children) and/or the extended family (grandparents, uncles and aunts, nephews and nieces, and cousins).
2. Is a political dynasty banned by law? Yes. Section 26 of Article II of our Constitution states that: "The State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service, and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by law."
3. Why is the ban not implemented? Sadly, Congress has yet to pass a law to implement the constitutional prohibition against political dynasties, which is not surprising since Congress is also dominated by political dynasties.
4. Why is a political dynasty anti-democratic? Democracy is government OF the People, BY the People, and FOR the People. A political dynasty, on the other hand, makes our government a government OF one family, BY one family and FOR one family.
5. What makes a political dynasty morally evil? Democracy is to give equal opportunity for all to serve in public office. A political dynasty closes the doors to many others who might have better experience and qualifications that could then translate into improved services and benefits for the welfare of everyone. It denies, as stated in our Constitution, equal access to opportunities for public service.
6. But defenders of political dynasties claim they are there for public service and are elected by the people anyway? "By their fruits you shall know them." And no one is indispensable. Look around and ask yourself if our communities are much better off under political dynasties that include the well-entrenched families and the budding ones. Our homeland Bikol has perennially had the highest number of poor people in the country. The latest 2009 estimates by the NSCB showed 45.1% of our population or 2,422,267 Bikolanos remain poor.
7. How do political dynasties perpetuate themselves in power? Political dynasties take advantage of the "equity of the incumbent" or the power and privileges of public office and control of government money and resources. You can readily see this undue positioning or even electioneering through their "epals" or billboards with their huge pictures or names for government projects like waiting sheds, schools, markets, roads, and other infrastructure.
8. How can we put an end to political dynasties? We should be able to elect new leaders. One proven way to encourage new candidates is through election finance reform where the election campaigns can be subsidized by the government based on percentage of votes garnered by candidates or their political parties in a previous election. The principle here is the more votes you get or support from the people, even if you lose, the more financial assistance you receive for the next election so in due time you would have a much better chance of being elected. And government subsidy is justified by the basic principle that an employer shoulders the cost of selection and hiring of employees.
9. Are there other means to end political dynasties? Another proven way against political dynasties is to put a cap or maximum limit on campaign contributions so that support for a candidate would be democratically spread out among the people as to prevent political dynasties from pouring out all their acquired wealth (usually ill-gotten or through influence-peddling) for the campaign. A cap would also rule out the control of our government leaders by the rich or the oligarchs who give huge sums of money to finance candidates who later on when elected become beholden to their patrons.
10. Here and now, how can I help end political dynasties? Believe in the power of one. Aspire for a better future for our children, especially those we see in the streets begging for food and money. As the wisdom of the ages in a song goes, "it is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness." This we kept faith in especially during the dark days of Martial Law (1972-1986), and in the end we had People Power in 1986. So, study the candidates, and don't ever vote for anyone belonging to political dynasties. If there's no choice, leave the ballot blank so political dynasties, even if elected would have lesser votes. Someday, we will prevail.