The anti-political dynasty bill that passed the third and final reading in the House of Representatives on Wednesday has drawn sharp criticism from the opposition, who called it “pro-dynasty.”
House Bill No. 8389, or the Anti-Political Dynasty Bill, authored by House Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III and House Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos, was approved with 271 affirmative votes, 16 negative votes, and seven abstentions.
A total of 173 lawmakers signed as co-authors of the measure, which was also endorsed and identified as a priority bill by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
“This measure does not intend to target families or restrict legitimate political participation. It seeks to ensure that public office remains open to all Filipinos and that leadership is determined by the people’s trust, not by the concentration of power in a few clans,” in a press statement said Dy, who like the Marcoses, also belongs to a political dynasty.
The bill prohibits relatives of currently elected officials from holding elective positions within the same jurisdiction. However, it covers only relatives up to the second degree of consanguinity or affinity, which includes spouses, children, parents, and siblings.
Some members of Congress opposed the measure, describing it as “fake” and “watered down,” saying it legitimizes political dynasties rather than prohibiting them.
ML Party-list Representative Leila de Lima said in a statement that the bill has several limitations, including the lack of a succession ban, the absence of rules preventing members of the same family from simultaneously holding positions in the same province, and no restrictions on families holding posts across multiple districts.
She added that the measure does not cover party-list representatives, broader family networks, and other “back doors” into public office.
“We can do better than this. We can pass a law worthy of the wait – a law the framers of the 1987 Constitution would recognize as a fulfillment of their mandate, not a betrayal of it,” she said.
Akbayan Reps. Chel Diokno and Perci Cendaña, who voted against the bill, also raised concerns over its loopholes, saying it still allows the concentration of power among families. “If one family can hold positions across multiple levels of government, that is still concentration of power,” Diokno said.
To be honest, expectations were already low for a House of Representatives that is dominated by political dynasties to come up with a proper anti-political dynasty bill that would face the issue squarely, the way the framers of the 1987 Constitution intended when they mistakenly assumed that Filipino politicos would actually prioritize the common good over their own selfish interests and lust for power. At this point, we do not know what is worse: no enabling law for decades, or a rushed one that is deliberately riddled with loopholes that could be exploited by those whose families still want to enjoy the benefits of power.
It is a sad fact that both the Lower and Upper Houses of Congress are dominated by political dynasties. If they are unable to craft a proper anti-political dynasty bill, we can only hope that the one they come up with doesn’t end up legitimizing what the framers of the Constitution feared most and make the situation even worse.
Is it too much to hope for our democratic experiment to somehow notch a win against political dynasties?*
