Philippines Launches Digital Campaign To Break Political Dynasties

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) A digital campaign was launched in the Philippines to end the country's worst political problem: political dynasties, which have been blamed for corruption and poverty in the Southeast Asian country.

Excluding countries with hereditary succession of rulers, the Philippines is the country with the highest level of political dynasticism in the world, with up to 87 per cent of key elected positions being held by families at the same time.

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Retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio led Dapat Isa Lang (There Should Only Be One”) campaign launch in Manila, while West Visayas, Northern Mindanao and Davao regions simultaneously joined the national inauguration.

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The People's Initiative Coalition Against Dynasty (PICAD) initiative aims to collect 7.5 million signatures, with 10 per cent coming from registered voters nationwide and the other three per cent from each district, PICAD convenor Eirene Aguila said.

The process is called People's Initiative (PI), which empowers citizens to directly propose, enact, approve, or reject amendments to the Constitution, national laws, or local legislation through a petition and a subsequent public referendum, rather than relying solely on Congress.

Aguila said the digital campaign platform is“a vehicle to exercise constitutional power” and is not a form of rebellion but“democracy in the most peaceful form.”

“In a PI, we're not just mere voters. We help in shaping the law,” she said.

Anti-political dynasty law

The campaign is a response to a recent Supreme Court decision urging the Philippine Congress to legislate an anti-political dynasty law, a Constitutional command that has been ignored by the country's legislators for the last 39 years.

Eighty per cent of all members of the Philippine House of Representatives (HOR) are political dynasts who have even circumvented the party-list system, a mechanism that should ensure representation for marginalized sectors and regions of the country.

HOR Senior Deputy Speaker and presidential son Sandro Marcos spearheaded the passage of a bill purportedly meant to end political dynasticism in the Philippines. His version, however, has been roundly criticized as a further institutionalization of the practice, as it allows members of a political dynasty to be in government as long as they occupy a different elected or appointed position.

Dapat Isa Lang insists that there should only be one family member in any position at any given time.

During the Manila launch, former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman and member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission Christian Monsod said the PI is“a huge, huge task.”

It must be done, nonetheless, as it would ensure“equitable distribution of power for the common good” and“open the door to the millions of poor Filipinos who deserve to be in public office,” Monsod said.

In a 2024 study, the Ateneo de Manila University School of Government concluded that political dynastism is strongly linked to government corruption, as the concentration of power in a single family weakens government accountability and increases the risk of abuse.

The Philippine Ombudsman estimated that overall graft drains about one-fifth of the total national budget yearly. Finance Secretary Ralph Recto also reported to the Senate that corruption consumes about 70 per cent of spending on specific public works, particularly flood-control programs.

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