All in the family

T

he family holds an important place in Filipino culture, and this has extended to Philippine politics – but not in a good way. Several studies have linked poverty, corruption, and electoral violence to dynastic politics, in which particular families or clans remain in power for years or even generations.

Worse, what was once a fixture only in provinces now plagues national politics, despite the prohibition on political dynasties under the Philippine 1987 Constitution. 

“Perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of Philippine politics is the domination of political dynasties at both the national and local levels,” noted the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL) in its 2022 National Elections Mission Report. “While other Asian democracies also see families accumulating political offices and power, the phenomenon is much more widespread in the Philippines and keeps increasing.”

Natalie Pulvinar, executive director of the nonprofit Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPeg), meanwhile told Asia Democracy Chronicles (ADC): “Definitely alarming today is the entrenchment of the system of political dynasties on a higher and more blatant scale, making the fair representation of the large majority of Filipinos even more elusive.”

Examples of these dynasties are unfortunately very easy to find, and they are even at the very top: Current Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is the namesake and son of the late dictator who ruled the country from 1965 to 1986. Vice President Sara Duterte is the daughter of Marcos Jr.’s immediate predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte. 

The Dutertes’ hometown is Davao City in the Philippine south, where both Rodrigo and Sara had turns being its mayor; Sara’s younger brother Sebastian currently holds the post. In the May 2025 general election, Rodrigo will once again run for mayor, and Sebastian for vice mayor. Sara’s older brother Paolo will vie for re-election as representative of Davao City’s first district in Congress.

The Marcoses, however, have more sway over both the executive and legislative branches.  Marcos Jr.’s older sister Imee is a senator while first cousin Martin Romualdez is the House Speaker. The Marcoses also control both congressional districts in the northern province of Ilocos Norte, as well as the province’s offices of the governor and vice governor, and the local government of its capital, Laoag.

In the upcoming midterm elections, Governor Matthew Manotoc, Imee’s son, will swap places with his aunt, Vice Governor Cecilia Araneta-Marcos, while other family members seek reelection. Except for Cecilia, all will run unchallenged.

The 24-seat Senate has two families with two siblings currently serving as legislators, and another clan with a mother-and-son tandem. Most of the incumbent senators had also been preceded in Congress by relatives or had or have family members holding other elected posts. The last elections saw the entry of at least three new family names in the Senate, but one of the new senators may soon be joined in the upper Congressional chamber by two of his brothers, if they get lucky in the 2025 elections.

Even the current Cabinet has two brothers as members: Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla and the Interior and Local Government Secretary Juanito Victor ‘Jonvic’ Remulla Jr.

Following the 2019 polls, the online publication Rappler counted at least 163 political families that had members in the Senate, Lower House, or in a provincial governor’s office, aside from kin holding other local positions.

Dynasties have also undermined the party-list system, which had been intended to provide representation for marginalized sectors. In 2022, election watchdog Kontra Daya identified 45 (25%) of the 177 groups vying for party-list seats as linked to dynasties, with 23 eventually successfully entering the Lower House. House Speaker Romualdez’s wife Yedda Marie, for instance, is the current representative of the Tingog Party List. 

For the May 2025 midterm elections, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism reported that at least two dozen families eyeing five to 11 positions from local to national posts. Meanwhile, 80 percent of congressional district seats are occupied by dynasties seeking reelection or planning to swap positions with other family members.

Defining ‘dynasty’

With roots dating back to the pre-colonial era, dynasties have been shaping the Philippine political and economic landscape for centuries. Ruling elites have passed power within families, and this practice continues today, even with elections in place.

Simply defined, a dynasty is a dominant family or organization that maintains its influence over time through succession or prolonged control. According to lawyer and Ateneo Policy Center (APC) senior research fellow Michael Henry Yusingco, the Philippines has yet to “firmly establish its legal definition.”

“Although we already have a legal definition under the new Sangguniang Kabataan law, that only pertains to the local level,” he told ADC.

Section 10 of the Sangguniang Kabataan Act of 2015 (Republic Act No. 10742) stipulates that candidates “must not be related within the second civil degree of consanguinity or affinity” to any incumbent elected officials, from the national level down to the barangay, in the area where the individual is seeking a position. Sangguniang Kabataan is the community council that represents the youth in a barangay, the smallest local government unit in the Philippines. 

While voters have expressed concern over political succession and the concentration of elected positions within a single clan, this sentiment rarely translates into effective actions to regulate or prevent the expansion of dynasties.

Yusingco said that while the anti-dynasty sentiment comes alive whenever an election is near, “it is not strong enough to beat the resources of the dynasties and the advantages of the incumbents.”

He said that challengers should “operationalize” their anti-dynasty campaign years in advance, reaching out to voters, building trust, and gathering allies – “creating a constituency instead of just asking for votes.”

For sure, though, there have been some individuals who have successfully challenged powerful political clans over the past few decades. But these victories have been rare and often short-lived.

Notable cases include radio broadcaster Grace Padaca, who defeated the Dy family in the northern province of Isabela in 2004 and served two terms as governor. In 2019 in central Philippines, human-rights lawyer Kaka Bag-ao won against a member of the Ecleo clan in the Dinagat Islands gubernatorial race, but lost in the subsequent election. In Ilocos Sur, farmer-leader Joseph Valdez successfully took the mayoral seat of Sta. Lucia from a dynasty twice and is now seeking a final term.

Power consolidation

Pulvinar said that people have mixed feelings of skepticism, frustration, and sometimes acceptance about dynasties. She attributes voters’ tendency to return to supporting political families to several factors: the significant resources and influence they wield, the lack of sustained support for reform candidates, fear of retribution, and cultural perceptions associated with stability, familiarity, and continuity.

“Long-standing political families have extensive networks, both within government and across private sectors … often (using) local government resources and programs to build loyalty and dependency within their communities,” Pulvinar explained.

Uneven economic structure has enabled a few families to monopolize wealth and power, she also said, fostering the growth of political dynasties and effectively eliminating genuine competition in politics.

“Genuine electoral competition will not happen in a country with a weak political party system ruled by dynastic political families,” said Pulvinar. “The biggest challenge is addressing this.”

At present, she said, Philippine elections remain a race among political personalities rather than a competition based on programs, issues, and platforms. With incumbent family members pouring their resources into the campaigns, Pulvinar said, “the results are decided by political dynasties.”

This is an observation shared by ANFREL, which said in its 2022 report: “Political dynasties not only tip the playing field by mobilizing their considerable political and financial resources, [but] they also worsen the political offer.”

Beyond elections, Yusingco said that dynastic domination in the executive and legislative branches has compromised the government’s separation of powers. This trend was first observed in 2010, he said, and then became more evident during the Duterte administration, with the dynasty-dominated “supermajority” in the House of Representatives.

“The supermajority was almost a rubber stamp for President Duterte,” said Yusingco. “This has made the lack of oversight more apparent, with lawmakers focusing on their own interests.” 

“If the administration slate wins (in 2025),” he added, “the Senate will be filled with family members. The oversight function may really disappear, leading to complete collusion between the two branches instead of them checking each other for abuses.”

Observers and critics have described the Marcos Jr. administration’s senatorial slate as a coalition of dynasties. Eight of the 12 candidates are from political dynasties; three of whom have siblings sitting in the Senate.

The leftist Makabayan bloc of lawmakers now plans to file a disqualification case before the Commission on Elections against dynastic candidates, citing the definition in RA 10742. For the first time, the Left is fielding an almost full senatorial slate, positioning itself as an alternative to candidates from political families. Its candidates have yet to make it into the Top 12 in key opinion surveys, however.

Moreover, previous legal actions against political dynasties have proven unsuccessful. In 2013, the Supreme Court definitively rejected a petition requiring Congress to legislate measures against political dynasties. Still, this has not stopped a group of lawyers from recently filing a similar plea with the High Court.

Efforts to pass laws regulating dynasties have repeatedly failed in Congress. The earliest attempt, Senate Bill No. 82 in 1987, passed with 16 votes, but did not clear the Lower House. Subsequent bills met the same fate. The latest, SB 2730, is pending before the 19th Congress.

In the House of Representatives, at least 24 bills have been filed on this issue, according to its official website. Notably, during the 16th Congress – HB 3587 reached the plenary for the first time. The most recent, HB 1157, is currently under consideration by the Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms.

But as ANFREL pointed out, “It is unlikely that the anti-political dynasty bill will ever be adopted by a Congress where most members themselves come from political dynasties.” ◉