That was an interesting distinction made by Dean Ronaldo Mendoza of the Ateneo School of Government regarding that political malady called “dynasty,” which has become endemic throughout the country, fortified by the confusing system engendered by the 1987 Constitution.
Dean Mendoza distinguishes between “fat” and “thin” dynasties. (Reminds me of one of the original chichirya re-packers in the country, which labeled its products “Fat and Thin” and copied the likenesses of Abbott and Costello, the then famous slapstick comedians).
There are indeed political clans with a gaggle of members holding different political positions in a province. Talk Ampatuan in Maguindanao, until the massacre dissipated their political strength. Or the Amantes and rival Plazas of Agusan. The Singsons of Ilocos Sur. And many other provinces where the governor is the father, brother or husband of the congressman, and their progeny are mayors and councilors, board members or barangay chairmen.
Mendoza observed that the poorest provinces in the country are governed by “fat” political dynasties. He presented his observations before the Senate where six bills seeking to ban political dynasties are being discussed.
“If we look at the evidence, anything with more than two family members is a fat dynasty”, the Ateneo dean said. And he gives examples: Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Northern Samar, Sarangani, Sulu, Bukidnon, Siquijor, the Agusan provinces, the Samar provinces, Lanao del Norte, and more.
“These fat dynasties affect our anti-poverty policies…the business environment…governors where relatives sit as board members when under the Local Government Code, the provincial board (is supposed to) serve as the check and balance”, he explained.
And what are the “thin” dynasties? Those with two, perhaps three in the same province? Such as where governor and the congressman being husband and wife, or brothers, or father and son?
The Constitution stopped short of a clear definition, and left it to Congress to define, and ban, political dynasties. Talk of asking dynasts to castrate themselves. Of course, they did not do it.
The 1987 Constitution, flawed as it is, has lasted all of these 31 years, and that is because political families have made hay under the political framework it spawned.
Truth is, if we want dynasties, or the concentration of local and national offices under a family, all we really need to do is to return to a two-party presidential system and lift this hypocrisy called term limits.
Excepting the president, let every elected official stay in the same office for as long as his constituents want him to serve them.
And let a strong, loyalty-based party system winnow the chaff from the grain. Let the parties choose among its members who ought to run for a particular office. Most surely, competing interests will not allow dynasties to flourish.
Do away with the practice of political turncoats, which the 1987 Constitution and the non-passage of legislation has allowed. LDP under Cory or her surrogate brother Peping; Lakas and the “rainbow coalition” under FVR; the Lampp coalition under the short-lived Erap presidency; Lakas-Kampi under GMA; the LP under PNoy; and now, the PDP-Laban.
Recall how the Liberals would fit inside a Volkswagen Kombi before PNoy, or so the joke said. And how the PDP-Laban would fit in a tricycle, until Duterte had to run under its banner in 2016, and won. Or how FVR became president despite having no more than seven congressmen supporting him at the start.
Whatever its flaws, or the lack of distinguishing ideology, the Nacionalistas and Liberals were much better practitioners of the art of the possible.
They had conventions which chose who were to run for all positions. These conventions reached consensus on candidates. They winnowed the chaff from the grain. Rarely would a party allow the governor and the congressman of a lone district-province to be closely related.
Even the choice of the eight senatorial candidates nationally were representative of the ethno-linguistic regions of the country then: an Ilocano, a Pampango, one or two Tagalogs, an Ilonggo, a Cebuano, a Waray, a Christian Mindanaoan, a Muslim.
Campaigns were party-run; teamwork was the guiding praxis. Why would highly qualified congressmen, governors and mayors choose a little-educated celebrity to represent them in the Senate of the Republic? Nowadays, any celebrity can run for senator, and likely win, regardless of educational qualification or experience. Two standards operate: “sikat ba?” and “may pera ba?”
Thus there is no Muslim in today’s Senate, no Waray, and it’s been like that for two decades.
Some of those who served as senators with great distinction were not hexed by term limits, and thus foist children with lesser abilities upon the nation. Recall Recto, Tanada, Laurel, Diokno, Puyat, Primicias, and other great names. They could have remained senator forever, because they had brilliance in the mind and decency in their veins. And their parties were proud of them.
There were governors and congressmen who got themselves re-elected term after four-year term, and with a few exceptions, they served their constituents well.
Term limits foster family dynasties, and the absence of genuine political parties stunt electoral maturity.
There are of course several other provisions in the 1987 Constitution that need to be revised. This is just my take on dynasties, that malady we always decry but have done nothing to stop.