A TROUBLING pattern continues to emerge in the 2025 elections as families dominate the party-list race for a spot in the House of Representatives.
An analysis of at least 1,600 names from the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) official list of party-list nominees reveals a strong pattern of familial ties within individual party-list groups.
At least 93 of the 155 party-list groups running, or about 60 percent, have two or more nominees who share either a surname or a middle name, which suggests possible family relationships among their own nominees. At least four groups have married couples among their official nominees.
Party-list groups aiming to join the House of Representatives are required to submit 10 nominees to the Comelec as part of their candidacy filing. But the most that a winning group can get is three slots, which usually goes for the party-list group with the highest percentage of votes. Meanwhile, each group is assured of one seat in the House for every two percent of the total votes it gets.
At least 19 party-list groups have more than five nominees sharing the same middle or last name. Topping the list are Pilipinas Babangon Muli (PBBM) and Anti-Crime and Terrorism Community Involvement and Support Inc. (ACT-CIS), each with nine nominees falling under this category.
The Comelec’s 2nd Division canceled the registration of PBBM after it found that none of its 10 nominees were from Calabarzon, the area it claimed to represent as a regional political party. The group can still file a motion for reconsideration.
An analysis of nominees across party-list groups in the 2025 elections reveals a recurring pattern in the use of surnames and middle names. The names “Garcia,” “Santos,” and “Tan” are the top family names that repeatedly appear across both middle and last name entries in multiple groups.
Some nominees from different party-list groups are closely related, placing them under the “fat” category of political dynasties, or where family members simultaneously hold multiple elective positions. “Thin” dynasties, on the other hand, are when relatives are elected one after another.
The Tulfo family exemplifies a growing “fat” dynasty, with multiple members running in the 2025 elections. Jocelyn Tulfo, wife of Sen. Raffy Tulfo, is a nominee for ACT-CIS. Her sister-in-law, Wanda Tulfo Teo, and Wanda’s son, Robert Tulfo Teo, are also running for Turismo. Wanda was previously involved in a financial controversy.
Aside from the Tulfos, two members of the Pacquiao family are also looking to join the House of Representatives through the party-list system.
Jinkee Pacquiao, wife of Manny Pacquiao, is a nominee for Maharlikang Pilipino sa Bagong Lipunan (MPBL), a group focused on athlete empowerment. Manny’s brother, Bobby Pacquiao, is a nominee for 1-Pacman. Additionally, Michael Romero’s daughter and half-brother are nominees for 1-Pacman and Gilas, respectively, showcasing familial involvement in multiple party-list groups.
Connecting two chambers of Congress
The party-list system is also the route-of-choice of families wanting to have a presence in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
For example, Jinkee and Bobby Pacquiao are running for House seats while Manny Pacquiao is running for Senate. Similarly, the Tulfo family has multiple members aiming for both chambers, potentially reaching seven members in the 20th Congress.
There would be seven Tulfos in the 20th Congress if they all win in the May 12 elections.
House Speaker and presidential cousin Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, who is a reelectionist of Leyte’s 1st District, is also aiming to strengthen his family’s political clout through the party-list race.
His son, Andrew Julian Romualdez, is the first nominee of Tingog Sinirangan. His wife, incumbent representative Yedda Marie, is named as the group’s seventh nominee, while Yedda’s sister, Marie Josephine Diana Calatrava, is the third nominee.
The Romualdez family members will likely join forces with presidential son and Ilocos Norte 1st District Rep. Sandro Marcos, who is running for reelection. Another Marcos cousin, Angelo Marcos Barba, is an unopposed reelectionist congressman of the province’s second district.
The Marcos family exhibits internal conflict, notably between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his sister, Sen. Imee Marcos. This tension was evident when Imee withdrew her support from her brother’s political slate after he excluded her from a campaign event.
The culprit?
Assistant professor of political science Crisline Torres-Pilapil of the University of the Philippines said the rampant use of the party-list race by families can be partly attributed to the Party-List System Act, particularly the low threshold required to get a seat.
“This low and effectively non-existent threshold makes the party-list system an attractive electoral mechanism for families and clans to enter the House of Representatives with a greater chance of winning seat/s in the House but without having to deal with the massive election expense and the more contentious winner-takes-all nature of the single member district electoral system,” she told Rappler on Wednesday, May 7.
The problem lies in the lack of a law prohibiting political dynasties. There have been efforts to file anti-dynasty laws, but none has gained momentum in recent years. Any proposed bill, after all, would have to go through the legislative process, which also involves members of political dynasties and clans.
“This failure of Congress to legislate this constitutional ban on dynasties would leave this constitutional provision as mere guiding principle,” she said.
“It is highly unlikely that Congress would legislate a ban on dynasties in the foreseeable future because it would be a political suicide for the members of Congress, most of whom come from dynastic relations, especially in the context where there is constitutional provision on the term limit,” Pilapil added.
But there are groups that have gone to the Supreme Court to seek help in compelling Congress to pass a law. On March 31, 2025, former Supreme Court justices Antonio Carpio and Conchita Carpio-Morales, along with former Comelec chair and Constitution framer Christian Monsod, filed a petition arguing that Congress is in violation of the Constitution by failing to enact an anti-dynasty law. This is the latest in a series of petitions dating back to 2012.
Political analyst Arjan Aguirre, an assistant professor of political science at the Ateneo de Manila University, highlights the weak institutionalization of political parties as a critical factor behind the dominance of the same families.
“[The lack of] strong and working parties out there to regularly compete for seats in the party-list system will only leave the dynasties as the lone political actor who’ll dominate the Philippine political system in the decades to come [since] they have the money, political network, patronage relations, and clientelistics tendencies to mobilize votes during elections,” he told Rappler on Tuesday, May 6.
An act that would institutionalize party-list groups and political parties can help groups without resources to work and function as a “real organization that can effectively recruit people to participate in the government,” among others. It can provide the necessary resources for parties to function, the responsibility or duty to work with the people, and the accountability in realizing their programs and platforms. / Rappler
This story is republished with permission from Rappler as part of a content-sharing partnership for the 2025 midterm elections in the Philippines.