The millions of money needed to win would naturally come from donations and the personal resources of the candidate.
Some candidates aspire for the elective position for financial gain derived from donations.
There is nothing inherently wrong with the children or wives of politicians seeking high office, but there is definitely something wrong when people start treating them as heirs to the throne rather than candidates. And there is something very wrong, indeed, when people begin to see politics as a game that is played by “them” rather than “us.”
The dynastification of Philippine politics is weakening the Filipino’s claim to be a democratic beacon. These days, political dynasties are usually associated with the young democracies of South Africa rather than mature republics.
It is time to realize that Cebu and, for that matter, the whole country, is producing a quasi-hereditary political elite, cocooned in a world of wealth and privilege and utterly divorced from most people’s lives.
Resil B. Mojares clearly emphasized that “elite families, combining both political and economic power, are leading actors in the national history.”
“They have been so, particularly since the 19th century when changes in property ownership patterns and increased commerce. In the context of a weak colonial state, they made the family a key vehicle and base for the accumulation of wealth, provision of physical security and social welfare benefits and maintenance of power and identity.”
“The American introduction of democracy did not cancel the dominant position of elite families, since these were the families that had accumulated the economic and social capital (money, education, political know how and mobilizing skill) needed to assume leadership in the American experiment in self-government.”
“When an independent Philippine government was inaugurated in 1946, these families were well-positioned to be the key players in the political and economic life of the nation. Thus, through the 20th century, much of the political and economic history of the nation can be told through the stories of its leading families.”
“Across provinces in the country, elite families have exercised decisive influence in the affairs of business and government. While across decades, many families have faded in position and influence.”
In the last three decades of the 19th century, the Velezes, Osmeñas, Climacos and the Velosos were the dominant elite families that controlled the political life of Cebu.
The political configuration in the country, specifically Cebu, is not unchanging.
The rise of new industrial zones, shifts in trade and transport networks, expanding urban centers and access to foreign sponsors and partners in a globalizing economy has affected the status of political families, eroding old bases of support, forging new networks or concentrating power in fewer families, bureaucratic, political and social changes will bring new pressures to bear on the capacity of political families to reproduce themselves.
In the field of business, the dominance of family-based corporations in the Philippines, as in the rest of Southeast Asia, has not been eclipsed by the so-called managerial revolution of the West.
Recent political results show that established political clans continue to dominate the House membership, governorship and mayorship.
Even with current moves to strengthen the State, it is not likely that the elite political families will pale into insignificance as actors in national affairs.
There is a great deal of variations in the careers of Filipino political families.
There are local bosses and “warlords” and, on the other hand, there are more skilled and entrepreneurial families. The people of Cebu knows who they are.
