Dynasties ‘more entrenched’ in House bill – Carpio

MANILA, Philippines — Political dynasties “will become more entrenched” if the proposed bill by the House of Representatives is approved, retired Supreme Court justice Antonio Carpio warned. 

In an interview over radio dzBB yesterday, Carpio again raised his objection to the House bill authored by Speaker Faustino Dy III and Majority Leader Sandro Marcos of Ilocos Norte’s first district, which proposes a ban on family members up to the second degree of ties from public office. 

The bill was “divided into five categories,” with the president, vice president and senators in one category, and congressmen and local positions in separate categories, Carpio explained. 

“The father can run for president, the nephew and niece for vice president, and the uncle and auntie for the Senate because that’s outside the second degree,” he pointed out. 

Meanwhile, siblings belonging to a family of politicians may seek election in each legislative district in a province or in each town and city, he added. 

Carpio maintained, “It will be worse, the political dynasties will be more entrenched.” 

According to earlier reports, Dy and Marcos – who both belong to dynasties – proposed under House Bill 8389 that spouses and relatives within the second degree of consanguinity or affinity may be prohibited from simultaneously seeking or holding elective posts within the same political jurisdiction, such as a single province, city, municipality or barangay.

Deputy Speaker Francisco Paolo Ortega V, who belongs to the political dynasty in La Union, defended the measure, saying it was the “most realistic” and would balance the effort to control political power and the democratic right to vote leaders. 

The Dapat Isa Lang Movement, of which Carpio is one of the convenors, had rejected the proposed House bill and maintained the ban on political dynasties should be extended to the fourth degree, or up to the first cousins, uncles and aunts, nephews and nieces, grandparents and grandchildren and others belonging to four generations of a public official and his or her spouse. 

It has launched an online signature campaign wherein they proposed that only one member of the family within the fourth degree can run in each national and local position, according to Carpio. 

The group has employed the people’s initiative, wherein they have to collect signatures of the constitutionally required three percent of the registered voters in each of the country’s 254 legislative districts or 10 percent of registered voters nationwide, to be able to advance its call for Congress to enact its proposed anti-dynasty law, he explained. 

While the group has not set a deadline for the gathering of signatures, Carpio said they may gather signatures up to next year, ahead of the next presidential polls in 2028. 

The Supreme Court in its landmark ruling last August has ordered Congress to pass an anti-dynasty law after 39 years that it has not been implemented despite being mandated by the Constitution, which was tantamount to grave abuse of discretion. 

It also suggested that the ban on political dynasties could be applied up to the fourth degree “including half-blood, adoptive, step and common-law relationships, as well as both legitimate and illegitimate filiations.”