Stranglehold

Alfred McCoy’s classic description of Philippine politics—as “an anarchy of families”—was coined in the early 1990s, but two decades later it’s even more apt and true. The results of the 2013 midterm polls have only confirmed that, while guns, goons and gold continue to play a huge part in how this country elects its leaders, a fourth element—bloodline—has the strongest grip of all on the system.

The guns and goons were actually at a historic low in the past electoral exercise, according to international observers. Even if it was observed that “violence was still being used as a tool in electoral campaigns … in contrast to the 2007 and 2010 elections, we observed a decrease in election-related violence,” said the Compact for Peaceful and Democratic Elections-International Observers Mission.

What the poll observers found particularly disturbing was something else: the overwhelming number of political dynasties in both the local and national levels. It’s these Mafia-style family conglomerates in power that contribute to and exacerbate the main problems they saw in the conduct of the recent polls, such as election-related violence, vote-buying and election management. “Many of these family networks control economic and political power and go at all costs, including resorting to vote-buying and violence, to maintain power,” the observers said.

Of the Philippines’ 80 provinces, 73 are ruled by political clans. Of some 178 dominant dynasties, about 100 are old land-based families, and the rest, new clans that rose and gained power after Edsa 1 and the post-Marcos years. That steep imbalance has led Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago to call the Philippines “the world capital of political dynasties”—a description that was reinforced in the latest polls, with the entry of newly minted dynasties such as the family of boxing champ Manny Pacquiao in Mindanao and the Pinedas in Pampanga.

In Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s province, not only did the former president win reelection unopposed (her congressman-son Dato took his gerrymandered Camarines Sur district for the second time), her ally Lilia Pineda also won a second term as governor. Pineda’s son Dennis also won as vice governor, Dennis’ wife Yolanda was reelected mayor of Sta. Rita town, and Pineda’s daughter Mylene won as mayor of Lubao town.

The Dy family, once defeated by independent candidate and now Comelec Commissioner Grace Padaca, is back in the saddle again in Isabela—its members holding the governor’s office, one of three congressional districts, and a number of mayor’s seats.

Down south, Pacquiao parlayed his celebrity and billion-peso wealth into a win not only for himself as reelected representative of Sarangani province, but also for his wife Jinkee—as green in governance as they come—as vice governor.

As neophytes go, however, none had a more spectacular run than Nancy Binay, a virtual unknown a year ago who placed fifth among the winning senators on the strength of her powerful surname. She now joins her father, Vice President Jejomar Binay, in a key government post, along with brother Junjun as mayor of Makati and sister Abigail as representative of Makati’s second district.

Of course, there is former president Joseph Estrada, bouncing back from political disgrace as the new mayor of Manila—with two of his sons now senators of the republic. And the case of the Marcoses is truly astounding…

When is enough enough? When will the voting public see that a political family’s rote invocations of “public service” to justify stuffing every public office in sight with kith and kin have curdled into plain greed?

Political dynasties come with huge costs to the health and well-being of the country. A 2012 study by Asian Institute of Management professor Ronald Mendoza correlates the Philippines’ economic inequality—the highest in Southeast Asia—with the lopsided character of its politics. With power and wealth and the means to acquire more of such concentrated in a few hands, the system becomes a self-perpetuating mockery of democracy.

More to the point, noted Mendoza, “political dynasties in the Philippines are located in regions with relatively higher poverty levels”—largely the result of families, their inclusive setup now free of checks and balances, treating their districts as fiefdoms for personal gain, and for shutting out qualified people from entering politics.

It’s a deadly stranglehold. Can any antidynasty bill be expected to thrive in the new Congress? Can dynasts turn on themselves and their kind?