Cielito Habito’s commentary in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, “Dynasties: Our Spreading Cancer” ( Aug. 13, 2024 ), has focused on one of the causes of our intractable and unrelenting poverty in a way that is not summarily seen as having a significant impact on our well-being.
Despite government statistics showing 15.5% poverty, Mahar Mangahas’s SWS- Social Weather Stations (“Poverty as Defined by the Poor,” Aug. 24, PDI ) indicates on average, 58% of Filipino families feel poor ( up from 46% in March 2024). According to government statistics, Thailand, the country we are most often compared to, shows 6-8 % poverty. While we may not be the poorest in Southeast Asia, our ASEAN brothers, like Myanmar and Vietnam, are on track to surpass us in our quest to be in the respectable middle class of nations.
This article examines and expands on dynastical politics in Mr. Habito’s Aug. 13 PDI commentary.
WHAT KIND OF POLITICAL DYNASTIES ARE WE TALKING ABOUT.
Here is a scenario that many of us can relate to:
The head of a family wins the local position of Barangay captain. A sibling wins Barangay kagawad. The “kap” runs for the Mayorship of the town and wins; his sibling becomes a Counsellor. The Mayor begins to groom his son to succeed him after his term limits ( 9 years ). He runs for Governor of the Province while building his connection with the national party. Meanwhile, his son becomes Mayor, and the uncle becomes Vice-Mayor. A sister becomes a Counsellor. The uncle eventually becomes Mayor. The sister marries a Congressman who took over the province’s Governorship while the original “Kap” runs for a national position as Senator or Vice-president. Meanwhile, the sister ran for Mayorship because the uncle had completed his term limits. The sister completes one term, and the uncle returns as Mayor. The “kap” eventually became President but did not finish the term because of corruption.
So is that the end of it? Not quite; our politicians do not become “elder statesmen” at the end of their term. They cannot stand being out of power for long, so they resurrect themselves as Mayor or Congressman or run again in their last-held position. Witness Erap Estrada, Arroyo or Isko Moreno. No amount of cognitive decline can stop these people from being in power again. That’s what dynasties do. The last chapters of Joseph Estrada, Ponce Enrile and Imelda Marcos have yet to be written.
MAKATI CITY, AN ACTUAL STUDY OF DYNASTICAL POLITICS
But here is a true-to-life example of how political inbreeding has become a consuming cultural tradition.
For 85 years, beginning in 1901, when Makati used to be San Pedro de Macati, a Romulo Magsaysay began the Mayorship ( then called President) of the municipality of Macati in 1901. Seventeen mayors later, through 1986, there was only one other Mayor with the same surname, Jose Magsaysay ( in 1913 ). ( I could not establish any relationship between Romulo and Jose.) But then, from 1986 to the present (38 years), only one surname, a Binay, belonged to the same family. (Sergio Santos (15 days ) and Romulo Pena ( 11 months) were caretaker mayors while there was an investigation into financial irregularities ). So, from 1986 to the present, the city of Makati’s mayorship belongs to the same family.
Beginning with Jjejomar Binay (9 yrs ), Elenita Binay ( wife of Jejomar, one term.), Jejomar Binay returned as Mayor. (two terms, then became VP in 2010), Jejomar Binay Jr. ( 5 years, until some financial irregularities forced him out ), Abigail Binay ( 6 yrs. 2016 to the present ). Nancy Binay, another Binay sibling, currently serving as Senator since 2013, is promising to contest the Mayorship from Abigail in 2025. It promises to be a bruising contest, just like when Abigail contested the Mayorship from his brother Jejomar Jr. I have no data, and also, in the interest of space, the above narrative does not include relatives outside of the Binay clan, who may have taken minor electoral roles in a Binay administration.
THE MARCOS DYNASTY
The current President, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., comes from a long line of dynastical politics. He and his older sister Imee, currently a Senator, served as Governor and Representative twice of Ilocos Norte. Both are siblings and are children of the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and Imelda Romualdez Marcos.
Ferdinand Marcos Sr’s father, Mariano Marcos, was elected to the Phil House of Representatives as Congressman for the second district of Ilocos Norte in 1925. His father, Fabian Marcos, served in local politics as
Gobernadorcillo ( equivalent to a barangay captain ). Marcos’s sister, Elizabeth Marcos-Keon’s son, Michael Marcos Keon, was governor of Ilocos Norte in 2007.
Marcos Jr’ won in the 2010 Phil Senate Election, a first win in a national position since the family’s return from exile in 1986. His eldest son, Sandro, has been the representative of Ilocos Norte’s 1st congressional district since 2022.
Imelda Marcos, Marcos Sr.’s wife, held non-electoral ministerial portfolios during his presidency. Her brother Benjamin “Kokoy” Romualdez became governor of Leyte province and later Philippine ambassador to the U.S.
In 2010, at age 80, Imelda successfully ran and won a congressional seat for Ilocos Norte. She won a second term in 2013. Brother Martin Romualdez is House Majority Leader and Leyte’s first district representative.
These are just two well-known examples of electoral dynasties. In other parts of the Philippines, there is concurrent ascendancy in various levels of municipal, provincial and national politics. In the current 19th Congress, according to Habito’s article, “husbands and wives, parents and sons or daughters, and siblings have won seats together.” To their credit, our legislative body has filed several bills to fulfill the 1987 Constitution mandate and prohibit it without success. The late Miriam Defensor Santiago (who labelled us as the “Dynasty Capital of the World” ) filed anti-dynasty bills, followed by a succession of legislators, right up to the most recent one filed by Robin Padilla, to no avail. But this is the same body with the power to pass this into law. It is a classic “fox guarding the hen house.”
The Habito article references studies that distinguish between “fat” and “thin” dynasties: thin dynasties in which family members succeed each other in the same position (“sunod-sunod”) and “fat,” which is what it is today, in which family members hold simultaneous government positions (“sabay-sabay”).
HOW DOES THESE EXAMPLES COMPARE WITH CANADIAN POLITICS?
Understand that our parliamentary system has no similarity with the Phil Constitutional Republic with a Presidential form of government. We don’t elect a Prime Minister or a Provincial Premier in Canada. The PM or Premier is based on the number of MPs or MPPs from the same party elected to the House. The party leader with the most members becomes the federal PM or Provincial Premier.
Theoretically, our PM or Premier can stay as long as most of their MPs and MPPs are elected in the House. There are no term limits, but it is rare for a politician to go beyond two or three terms in Canada. The current PM, Trudeau, has a coalition with the NDP that allows it to form a government. An election is held every four or five years. Why do only our politicians stay within two or three terms? ( The most extended PM in power was Mackenzie King ( in 1925), who was PM for 21 years )
The following account may show why our politicians don’t stay as long as their Philippine counterparts. In the 90s, Lucien Bouchard, opposition leader of Parti Quebecois, led a referendum to separate Quebec from Canada. They lost by a hair. Shortly after, he resigned as leader and MP. Why? Because, as a newly divorced father, he couldn’t make a living from his salary as an MP to provide for his two young sons. He returned to private practice of law.
Another example was Premier ( of Newfoundland) Brian Peckford, who, after two successful terms, stepped down at 46. The conservative party had fundraising for him so he could make a downpayment for a house and a car! After being Premier ( equivalent to a Governor in a presidential system ), he struggled to make a living in the private sector.
Generally, Canadian politicians who stay longer may have wealthier progenitors and be able to withstand a low politician’s salary. The lineage from the current Prime Minister Trudeau and Premier Doug Ford is a fraction of the Philippine dynastical experiences.
Justin Trudeau is well known as the eldest son of the late Pierre Trudeau. His maternal grandfather, James Sinclair, was an MP and cabinet minister in the 1950s. It is too early to predict how his young children will follow in their father’s and grandfather’s footsteps.
Premier Doug Ford is the son of the late Rob Ford Sr., MPP in ON. in the mid-90s. His brother Rob Jr. served as Toronto Mayor while Doug was the city councillor. Doug Ford was elected Premier of Ontario in 2018. His nephew Michael is MPP in 2022 and is currently a cabinet minister in the Ford administration.
The above examples show that both belong to wealthy families and have proven themselves to be motivated by service, with the occasional conflict-of-interest charges lobbied by the opposition in their governing.
Even with other dynasties in Quebec and Nova Scotia, the Canadian record is 13.5 %. 6% in the U.S., 10% in Argentina and Greece, 22 % in Ireland, 24% in India, 33% in Japan, 40% in Mexico, and 42% in Thailand, all far below ours at a whopping 80%! Ours are more prevalent, and the record shows a continuing upward trend.
If Filipino politicians earn only their salaries, dynastical politics will have difficulty self-sustaining from generation to generation. Oligarchs and dynasties feed on each other’s influence and hegemony, a sort of symbiotic mutualism that guarantees long-running survival.
Have you ever heard of a Filipino politician quitting because they cannot make a living from a politician’s salary?
THE DETRIMENTAL EFFECTS OF DYNASTIES
Habito indicated that “countless studies have shown a close correlation between dynasties and persistent backwardness and poverty.” This is political inbreeding of the highest order, with families feeding on each other’s memes, perpetuating and preserving self-serving practices. A political culture that doesn’t get the benefit of fresh ideas and creative input propagates like a viral contagion. Like a chronic familial illness, it eventually weakens and overwhelms the government.
Dynastical politics defy generational changes by their very nature; we are being left behind with the rapid progression of the world around us. Our unrelenting problems linger because the people dealing with them are disciples of the past, prisoners of the old days trying to deal with today’s issues through the lens of the past.
One of the most glaring downsides of dynasties is that they forestall political competition. They result in a high concentration of power among related individuals. They reduce checks and balances in government, which results in poor governance, misuse of public funds, and corruption. Nepotism and cronyism lend to the erosion of meritocracy. Collusion between members of the same family with little outside interference is open to relentless abuse of power.
It persists because the dynasties have the wealth and connections to perpetuate themselves in power. Potential opponents do not have the machinery to win elections or the resources to win the poor. Effective opposition needs leadership. Unfortunately, they have been trounced into oblivion, either out of politics altogether or, like many others, making their contributions abroad.
Next time you are home for a visit, pay attention to who is in local politics. There’s a good chance he/she is a scion of another with the same surname. It’s a time-honoured economic enterprise with high returns.