A CANDIDATE’S DIARY, DAY 7: THE POLITICAL DYNASTY ISSUE

The issue of political dynasty is all about prohibiting members of the same family to serve in elected positions in government at the same time.

While there is a provision in the Philippine Constitution addressing the issue of political dynasty, this has not been implemented because Congress has not passed an enabling law.

In this election, the political dynasty issue is being raised again, especially in my hometown in M’lang where an old political family is attempting to regain power.

This is the same political family who held power in my town for 27 long years and whose relatives also occupied political positions simultaneously during that period.

This is just a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

But seriously, what are my thoughts about the “cry” to ban members of the same family from serving in elected positions at the same time.

Let us address this by coming up with parallelisms.

If a family which has several members serving in elected positions at the same time is called a political dynasty, what do we call a family whose children are teachers?

Will the family of teachers be called educational dynasty?

And a family whose children decided to serve God as priests and nuns a religious dynasty?

Or a family whose children are all doctors a medical dynasty?

What about a family whose children are all engineers? Do we call it an engineering dynasty?

Come to think of this: If members of the same family all decide to become doctors, teachers or priests, should they be faulted or looked at with scorn?

Should people ask them to stop from becoming priests, teachers, doctors or engineers at the same time and “give others a chance?”

No, we could not stop them from choosing what they want to do in life.

Again, come to think of this: Even if all the members of a political family would choose to run for electoral positions at the same time, they will have to contend with the voters who will elect them.

Whether they will be allowed to serve government or not depends on the decision of the voters.

This is just a very practical argument.

Let just look at specific examples. In the town of Antipas, the incumbent mayor Edgar Van Cadungon is being challenged by his older brother, Egidio Jr., his younger brother Cris is also running for Board Member and son Tata is for councilor. How would the law on political dynasty treat this? Should Egidio Jr. be stopped from running against his brother?

In North Cotabato, my family would be guilty of political dynasty since I have two brothers who are mayors of different towns, another brother is a councilor while another is a barangays chairman.

But if we are guilty, so would be the family of Gov. Emmylou Talino-Mendoza whose father is mayor of Carmen, whose brother Ryan is councilor of the same town, and whose husband is a Congressman representing a labor group.

So would be the Gantuangcos of Kidapawan City, where Mayor Rodolfo Gantuangco is running for vice mayor and brother Ernido is running for mayor. So would be the Ipongs of Makilala where Gregorio Ipong is the incumbent vice governor and his son, Doodz, is running for councilor.

So would be the Valdeviesos of Matalam where Oscar is the incumbent mayor, daughter Gigi is the vice mayor and another daughter Maybelle is running for board member.

So would be the Allado’s and Alesasises of Banisilan where Betty Allado is the incumbent mayor, who is running against an in-law, and whose brother is her vice mayoralty candidate who is going up against her brother in law, former mayor Floro Allado.

We can also look at the issue of political dynasty from the standpoint of individual rights.

The International Declaration on Human Rights to which the Philippines is a signatory is very clear in specifying the political right of every individual.

It says that among the basic human political rights is “to vote and to be voted for.”

Preventing a person from running for a political position simply because his brother is also in politics is a violation of that right.

I believe that what should be strengthened should be the implementation of election laws and the recall mechanisms and the rules on government officials facing graft and corruption cases before the Sandiganbayan.

The Commission on Elections must be very strict in enforcing the law against vote buying, terrorism and the use of government resources in campaigning. This would effectively prevent a family in political power to work for the election of other members of the family.

Government must ensure that political leaders are subjected to an immediate recall the moment they are charged with graft and corruption cases.

And most of all, government officials who have been indicted and charged before the Sandiganbayan should be prevented from occupying government positions until such time they are cleared of the charges.

These are the measures which could be implemented strictly to ensure that political participation through democratic elections would be a level playing field where everybody has the chance to offer himself in service of the people and be elected to a position.

Any attempt to prevent a person from being elected to a position simply because his brother or father is already occupying a political position is a violation of that person’s political right.

(Photo caption: Photo shows me and my brothers, former congressman Jun and Mayor Lito of M’lang, with Dr. Rod Escudero, candidate for Congress 3rd district, and the three skyjumpers.)