Anti-political dynasty tops bills filed by Drilon

The passage of the Anti-Political Dynasty Act topped the list of measures that Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon vowed to work on this 18th Congress, as he urged Congress to fulfill its constitutional duty to end political dynasties.

Drilon's bill, Senate Bill No. 11, seeks to prohibit spouse or relatives of an incumbent elective official seeking re-election to hold or run for any elective office in the same province in the same election.

"No less than the Constitution mandates the State to guarantee equal access to public service and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by law," Drilon said.

Drilon has long pushed for an enabling law that will implement the provision of the Constitution prohibiting political dynasties.

This is because even after more than 30 years since the ratification of the Constitution, the Congress has repeatedly failed to fulfill its constitutional obligation to enact an enabling anti-political dynasty law.

"The Constitution entrusted to Congress the duty to end political dynasties. Unfortunately, we have failed in our duty and, hence, political dynasty still persists and so does poverty," Drilon said, underscoring the ill effects of political dynasties.

"Studies have clearly established the relation between poverty and political dynasties. Most of the poorest provinces and municipalities in the country are ruled by dynastic relationship," Drilon said, citing the situation in provinces of Lanao Del Sur, Maguindanao and Sulu in Mindanao.

"Research has found that dynastic concentration has a significantly negative effect on the upliftment of local living standards, noting that lack of real political competition leads to flawed policies," he added.

But Drilon remains hopeful that the measure will have the support of the 18thCongress.

Drilon explained that under his bill, a political dynasty is deemed to exist when a person who is the spouse of an incumbent elective official or a 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 city and/or province or occupies the same office immediately after the term of office of the incumbent elective official.

"Such policy seeks to level the playing field in the political arena pursuant to cornerstone of our country's governmental ideology-democracy," he added.

In SBN 11, no spouse, or person related within the second degree of consanguinity or affinity, whether legitimate or illegitimate, full or half blood, to an incumbent elective official seeking re-election shall be allowed to hold or run for any elective office in the same province in the same election.

In case the constituency of the incumbent elective official is national in character, the above relatives shall be disqualified from running only within the same province where the former is a registered voter.

"The bill also seeks to ban any person within the prohibited civil degree of relationship to the incumbent to succeed to the position of the latter," Drilon explained.

The minority leader also filed Senate Bill No. 12 that seeks to strengthen the political party system in the country and discourage political "turncoatism".

"Turncoatism should never be tolerated since it only distorts the concept of word of honor and dignity of a leader. It is therefore imperative that the country's political party system should be strengthened in order to achieve genuine political development and democratization," Drilon said in his explanatory note.

"Our political party system is centered on personalities rather than ideology and political platform. There have been many attempts to reform the orientation of our political parties in the past so as to veer away from the concept of traditional politics," said the veteran senator.

He said that these attempts were unsuccessful "because of lack of legal institutional framework to govern system of political parties."

Aside from anti-political dynasty and political party reform bills, Drilon also filed proposed measures on the amendments to the Public Service Act, Retail Trade Liberalization Act, the Citizenship Retention and Reacquisition Act; institutionalization and strengthening of Public-Private Partnerships; and creation of Boracay Development Authority.