Political dynasty damages Philippine democracy

Manila: TV host, actress, and highly-paid product endorser Kris Aquino, the more popular sister of President Benigno Aquino has more than hinted that she wants to run for Congress.

However her cousin Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV, the son of the president’s younger brother Paul Aquino recently emerged as the youngest family member who might run for the Senate, under the ruling party, in 2013.

Many Aquinos and Cojuangcos, the family name of former president Corazon Aquino, have been elected in Congress and local government offices, making them political flavours for several years, best described as a big political dynasty in the making, the ending of which is not easily foreseen in the future.

One of the Aquinos, former Senator Tessie Aquino-Oreta has also spawned a new dynastic line of the Oretas meant to perpetuate the family in politics in Metro Manila’s southern suburban Malabon.

Earlier, when former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was in power (from 2001 to 2010), her two sons were elected at the House of Representatives; her brother-in-law also won a seat at the lower house of Congress. After all, the brilliant economist-daughter of former president Diosdado Macapagal (1961 to 1965) grew up in Malacanang, the presidential palace.

She and her successor, the young President Aquino, have the same thing in common: their childhood spent in the halls of power where they must have acquired their appetite, stamina, and taste for politics.

Waiting from the rear to enter the limelight of higher political power are also second and third generation political leaders: Senator-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, the son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos (1965 to 1986); and former presidential candidate allied with Aquino in 2010, former Senator Mar Roxas, the grandson of former President Manuel Roxas, the first president of the Republic of the Philippines in 1946, who abruptly died in 1948.

Marcos Jr was a student of Wharton School of Economics, and the young Roxas a graduate of the same school.

All the surviving Marcoses, except for daughter Irene, have been elected in Congress and in local government offices, sometimes alternating posts with other relatives.

Social inequality

When former president Joseph Estrada was forced out in 2001, (following a landslide election in 1998), by a military-backed street protests that were launched by those who were against the abrupt ending of his impeachment trial at the Senate in late 2000, his first wife and son were immediately elected in the Senate.

Later, his other son and his partner were elected as local government leaders of suburban San Juan.

Political dynasty is more common in local government units in the provinces where a wife, a daughter, or a son can replace a family member who died during a campaign period.

Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile and Congressman Jack Enrile, Senator Edgardo Angara and Congressman Sonny Angara and siblings Pia and Alan Peter Cayetano at the Senate are now symbols of political dynasties reared by traditional politicians in the Philippines.

“This is a very clear case of political dynasty replicated in the halls of the 15th Congress and in various parts of the country,” said columnist Marichu Villanueva of the Philippine Star.

“Out of 17 million families [in the Philippines], only 100 families have ruled Philippine politics and economy,” said columnist Antonio Lopez of the Manila Times, adding that political dynasty is a sure sign that only a few can secure a large income and thereby create a wide social inequity, in the process.

“In 50 years, seven presidents came from just four families — two Macapagals, two Aquinos, two cousins (Ferdinand Marcos and Fidel Ramos who ruled from 1992 to 1998), and an actor (Joseph Estrada who now has built his own dynasty in San Juan and in Congress),” Lopez observed.

Parallel to the political dynasty is social inequity created by a few that have cornered income and growth, said Lopez.

“There are 36 commercial banks [in the Philippines]. But only four groups or families control more than 66 per cent of the seven trillion peso (Dh0.61 trillion) resources of the entire commercial banking system — Henry Sy Sr. 19.51 per cent, George Ty 13.71 per cent, Zobel-Ayala 11.94 per cent, the government 14 per cent, and Lucio Tan 7.27 per cent,” said Lopez, adding, “Only ten families own 60 per cent of the 10 trillion pesos combined market capitalisation of more than 200 listed companies.”