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Friday, March 29, 2024

What’s wrong with our system of governance?

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“The constitutional prohibition on political dynasties is sound in principle and should be fully implemented with an enabling law.”

What’s wrong with it is this: “I have a daughter running for vice president, a son for congressman and (another for) mayor. I am fulfilled.”

That was President Rodrigo Duterte talking recently.

And it sums up, we think, what’s gross and sickening about our political culture today—political dynasties—and what we must still do to achieve inclusive democracy.

What’s also distressing about Duterte’s statement is that he uttered it with not a small measure of pride, as if boasting that all members of his immediate family deserved to control the levers of political power not just in their city but also at the national level at some future time.

In the first place, the 1987 Constitution contains a provision prohibiting political dynasties to broaden access to public office. But as we know, that provision left it to Congress, the lawmaking body, to flesh it out. There were several attempts in the past by progressive-thinking legislators to pass an anti-dynasty bill, but to no avail, as the pro-dynasty members of Congress promptly shot these down, obviously unwilling to give up pelf and privilege and allowed self-interest, pure greed and unmitigated hubris to cloud their decisions.

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In the second place, as a lawyer and the highest official of the land, Duterte should have set an example of self-abnegation and high statesmanship to the current and future leaders of this country.

But it could have been worse. Recall that a small faction in his political party, PDP-Laban, even entertained the idea of letting him run for the vice-presidency and later, as a senator. When few except dyed-in-the-wool sycophants reacted positively to his political plans after six years as president and more than two decades as Davao City mayor, the idea of holding on to public office after 2022 was quietly dropped. As vice president or even as senator, however, he would not be immune from suit and could be hounded and prosecuted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the killing by the police of nearly 7,000 of alleged drug suspects without benefit of due process.

But will Rodrigo Duterte really retire from public office after turning over the reins of power to a new president after June 30 this year? Given what appears to be his determined bid to keep public office as a family business, expect the unexpected from Rodrigo Duterte.

As his daughter Sara leads the race for the country’s second highest office according to the latest surveys, Duterte expressed satisfaction that he had “accomplished” his job.

Experts, however, take a dim view of the country’s economic and political prospects with political dynasties in near-total control of our political system.

A recent news report entitled “PH political dynasties tighten grip on power” quoted De La Salle University professor Julio Teehankee: “Power begets power — the more they stay in power, the more they accumulate power, the more powerful they get.”

The country has produced about 319 dynastic families, dating back to when it was a US colony in the first half of the 20th century, he pointed out, adding that while dozens have withered, members of at least 234 such families won positions in the 2019 midterm elections.

“You cannot expect a house full of dynasties to pass an anti-dynasty legislation—it’s like asking Dracula to guard the blood bank,” said Teehankee.

The same report also cited Ronald Mendoza, dean of the Ateneo School of Government, as saying that the growing influence of political dynasties is evident in the fact that around 80 percent of governors belong to “fat dynasties”—clans with two or more members in power at the same time — compared with 57 percent in 2004.

Meanwhile, political families now hold 67 percent of seats in the House of Representatives, compared with 48 percent in 2004, and 53 percent of mayoral posts, up from 40 percent.

Of the leading candidates for 12 Senate seats being contested, at least three already have a relative in the chamber.

Even the party-list system, which seeks to give those from the marginalized and underrepresented sectors a voice in Congress, has been largely taken over by a handful of political families.

According to Mendoza: “We managed to liberalize the economy, but we failed miserably to liberalize our politics. Eventually, even if you liberalize your economy, you will still hit a ceiling because of bad governance and because of that failure to liberalize politics.”

We agree totally with these views. We’ve seen how political families in various parts of the country have managed to hold on to power, perhaps more often than not, through the use of the so-called 3Gs—guns, goons and gold. If there are political dynasties that deserve to occupy public office because they are sincere in uplifting the quality of life of their constituents, especially the poor, they are the exception rather than the rule, and urge them to exert even greater effort to render genuine service to their constituents. At the same time, however, we believe that the constitutional prohibition on political dynasties is sound in principle and should be fully implemented with an enabling law.

It has been suggested that the country shift from a presidential system to a federal one as the way forward in attaining political stability, economic development, and social concord. But there’s also the danger that regions grouped into federal states could turn out to be governed by already entrenched political families. What happens then?

(Email: ernhil@yahoo.com)

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