Political dynasties started a long time ago even before Magellan went to our country. In a book by Renato Constantino entitled Making of a Filipino, he explained that communities in this era were accustomed to an early form of government and politics. They had the datu, raja and the maharlika as their leaders in the tribal community. As said by Stephanie Cabigao in a post in University of the Philippines System Website, the datu, raja and maharlika may serve as archetypal models for the formation of political dynasties. Recently, the Philippines started using the automated election system in May 2010 for the first time nationwide and it was seen in a study done my CenPEG that there are even more political dynasties in both of the national and local levels.
It was in 1987 when Commissioner Vicente Foz proposed that political dynasties should be prohibited because he believed that the idea of restricting this is to prevent one family from controlling political power as against the democratic idea that political power should be given among our people. Commissioner Teodulo Natividad, with the support of Commissioner Christian Monsod, objected to Foz' proposal because he thinks that this would diminish the power of the people to elect who they would want to be in position. However, Commissioner Jose Nolledo agreed with Foz saying that if political dynasties were to be restricted, we would have more political opportunities on the part of the poor but deserving people to run for a position with a better chance of winning. Despite their good arguments, the proposal was rejected.
Nolledo fought for his stand in the debate and so the government heard his plea. In the Philippines Constitution, Article II, Section 26 says that "The State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service, and prohibits political dynasties as may be defined by law." This excludes the accident birth or marriage. The definition of political dynasty must not contradict the provision of guaranteed equal access for the opportunity of public service and the essence of democracy should prevail. (Tirol, 2012)
To support Article II, Section 26, Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago attempted to pass a law to prohibit political dynasties in the Senate Bill No. 2649 during the first regular season of the 15th Congress in 2011. Sen. Santiago proposal is to be known as the Anti-Political Dynasty Act. SB 2649 provided the definition of political dynasty as "shall exist when a person who is the spouse of an incumbent elective official or relative within the second civil degree of consanguinity or affinity of an incumbent elective official holds or runs for an elective office simultaneously with the incumbent elective official within the same province or occupies the same office immediately after the term of office of the incumbent official. It shall also be deemed to exist where two (2) or more persons who are spouses or are related within the second civil degree if consanguinity or affinity run simultaneously for elective public office within the same province, even if neither is so related to an incumbent elective official." This definition was provided because it is one of the problems in making an anti-political dynasty law since they have different perspectives on what the definition of political dynasty is.
Until now, political dynasty is a big issue in our government for it has affected all of us in many ways. Commissioner Foz, Commissioner Nolledo and Senator Santiago have shared their thoughts on political dynasty and so it is our turn to be more aware of this issue and how we, as citizens of the Philippines, can do something about it.