“This is one reason we are being overtaken by countries.”
Once again, another election season is upon us and by the looks of it, nothing has changed.
Political campaigning has not yet officially started, but we already witnessed our first violent incident in Sharrif Aguak in Maguindanao. If the simple filing of a Certificate of Candidacy is enough to cause violence, how many more people will have to die before it is all over? Considering that we have been having elections since 1907, one would expect that we would have attained enough political maturity to be able to conduct a peaceful election but we seem to have not learned anything at all.
It is not only in the area of election violence that we continue to lead the way but we also have become the foremost exponent of a political phenomena known as family political dynasties which we are doing to the extreme. Where else can we see families ruling provinces and cities for generations as if it is a fiefdom and passing positions to wives and children?
All that one has to do is scan the political horizon to see how this has grown in this country. The names of the candidates both national and local should be proof enough.
Another feature of Philippine politics is the number of movie personalities or celebrities in elective positions both national and local. Although there is nothing inherently wrong with this, it is probably an indication why we are always playing catchup with our economically speeding neighbors. There is no doubt that being always in the limelight has certain advantages in name recall during elections. This is perhaps the reason why many of our current elective officials can be seen in huge advertising billboards endorsing commercial products of every kind. That no one in Congress sees the need to pass a law regulating this practice ensures that we are not going to see any reforms done anytime soon.
Let us also take a look at the Senate race. Of the 183 who filed their candidacy for the 2025 election, the Comelec will only apparently include in the ballot 66 candidates whom it believes are able to mount a nationwide campaign. The rest are considered nuisance candidates. Many of the 66 that will be allowed to campaign are familiar names and faces which means that it is business as usual. The names that we also read vying for local positions are the same people either coming back to reclaim the positions that they have vacated or other families consolidating or expanding their current power base.
In the Senate, if things turn out according to plan, there will be four pairs of siblings which will be a third of the entire body. We do not know if this qualifies for a Guinness world record but that would be something. Even in Baguio City where it has never happened before, we are seeing the first husband-and-wife team wanting to occupy the two highest positions in the City. The husband wants to become mayor while the wife intends to win the congressional contest being vacated by the husband. If both will be successful, the City will join the many cities and provinces throughout the country wherein the governance of these places are essentially family affairs.
Even in the party-list system, there are according to the Comelec 156 party-list groups vying for representation in the House. Originally intended for underrepresented and marginalized sectors of society, the Supreme Court has reinterpreted it to include various sectors. This will ensure that membership in the House will continue to increase.
If we compare provinces and cities that have been governed by families for generations to places that regularly change their leaders, the places that regularly change leaders are generally more dynamic and progressive. That is after all supposed to be the essence of our system— electing new leaders on the notion that no leader can stay in power forever. But we in this country can always find ways to circumvent regulations so that political power will continue to remain in the hands of those already in power. This is one reason we are being overtaken by countries more willing to change.
