A FORMER teacher and good friend of mine, Rhoderick John Abellanosa, wrote an opinion column tackling the issue of political dynasties and though his column wasn't what made me think about this issue, it was his column that made me want to write about it myself. I bounced my ideas off of his and while the solution I offer isn't perfect, it's one I think has some merit.
To solve a problem, political dynasty we usually look at two things - the cause and the effect. Take a leaking roof. The cause if obviously the poor condition of the roof itself. The effect is that water enters the house and can cause damage to your property. We can opt to address the cause by plugging up the leak or replacing the roof which would make the most sense. Or we could opt to address the effect and put an umbrella inside the house to make sure the leak doesn't cause a slipping hazard.
political dynasty
Our problem with the issue on political dynasties is we see their existence as a cause we need to plug up to avoid their adverse effects. My take on this issue is that political dynasties is that it is an effect, the cause of which is what we need to address. Consider how many political dynasties start off. I'll illustrate below and you decide if the thing I painted is close to reality. I'll be using hypothetical couple Boy and Girlie and the hypothetical city of Lungsud.
Boy, the mayor of Lungsud City, is married to Girlie.
Girlie does not have much interest in politics. She found it dirty and wanted no part of it.
During Boy's last term as mayor, he realizes there isn't a more suitable replacement to his leadership. Either that or he simply doesn't want to give up the power he's grown accustomed to for his past three terms (that's nine years).
He may have engaged in some shady dealings which he needs to cover up. Enter the brilliant idea of asking Girlie to run in his stead while he runs as her vice-mayor.
If Boy is popular enough, Girlie gets enough support to win and now you have the mayor and vice-mayor positions held by the same couple.
Girlie now enjoys her power and decides to stick to politics.
The more I think about it the more I'm convinced that political dynasties are born out of the Filipino palusut attitude. Whatever law we put forth addressing political dynasties, the Filipino will find a loophole in it. Plus, let's face it. Pushing for an anti-dynasty law to come from politicians who come from political dynasties is never happening. A genius law comes from looking like it serves these monkeys when in fact it serves the people more.
My proposal? It might be time for the Philippines to consider lifting term limits for local positions including congressional seats. In my view, what harm does it do to cities if good mayors stay in power longer? Lifting term limits also removes the incentive for family members from going into politics as the main politician in the family is still able to run for the position legally.
Now, I admit I could be totally wrong on this front and this could erupt into total chaos but it makes sense to me the most. I remember a former senator defend his poor performance as a lawmaker by saying the Philippines already has a lot of laws. He was mocked then but there may be some wisdom in his words. Many laws are good. Some are bad. Some are outdated. And a lot need revision. I think the laws on term limits need some revision.
As it so happens, a draft of the new constitution does remove term limits from congressmen only. From my personal observation of Philippine politics, this rule needs to extend to mayoral races as well since they are the ones that usually spawn these political dynasties.
That's my take on this matter. Whatever the case, it would be beneficial to the Filipino people to see the end of political dynasties but the mechanism by which we end them should make sense as well.