Presidential dynasties

The late president Ferdinand Marcos had the longest term of all presidents of the country. First elected in 1965, Marcos won a second term of office for another four years. As history unfolded, before his second term could end, Marcos imposed martial law in September 1971.

Thus, it began the Marcos build up of his presidential dynasty with his wife, former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos as Metro Manila Governor; eldest daughter Imee leading the Kabataang Barangay (KB); and, namesake son Bongbong Marcos Jr. as Ilocos Norte Governor. This is not to mention other immediate relatives and kin in various government offices and elective posts.

And for nearly two decades, Marcos stayed in office at Malacañang Palace until he was ousted during the February 25, 1986 People Power Revolution. The Filipino nation marked yesterday the 32nd anniversary of this historic EDSA peaceful people power revolution when the late president Corazon Aquino was swept into office at Malacañang.

While she headed the revolutionary government, the widow of slain Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. ordered the crafting of a new Constitution that was ratified a year later on February 2,1987. Largely influenced by the national outrage against excesses and abuses in power during the Marcos regime, the 1987 Constitution mandated, among other provisions, the passage by Congress of an enabling law to ban political dynasty.

Three decades later and several congresses after, no ban against political dynasty ever got through the legislative mills.

While she was in office, Mrs. Aquino tried hard to hew closely with the Constitutional mandates. During her six-year watch of the country, she was bedeviled by accusations of her own “Kamag-anak Inc.,” in reference to immediate family members from one brother to uncles and cousins who were also in power.

Though much ahead in politics than Mrs. Aquino, her younger brother former Tarlac Congressman Jose “Peping” Cojuangco and wife, ex-Tarlac Governor Margarita “Tingting” Cojuangco, were among the much maligned “Kamag-anak Inc.” Other relatives from her husband’s side were also elected officials like the late Sen. Agapito “Butz” Aquino and Congresswoman Tessie Aquino-Oreta.

Former president Fidel Ramos, one of the leading EDSA heroes, had the same woes when he succeeded Mrs. Aquino at Malacañang. His younger sister, the late Senator Leticia Ramos-Shahani, who entered politics much earlier than his “Kuya Eddie” had always been an issue. It became worse when the Senator’s son, Ranjit Shahani, won his own congressional seat in their home province Pangasinan.

Former president Joseph Estrada, even during the shortened stint at Malacañang, was not spared from the political dynasty issue. His eldest son, actor-turned politician Jinggoy Estrada, was San Juan City Mayor. Following his ouster from the presidency, Mr. Estrada’s political clan grew to include former First Lady Dra. Loi Ejercito who, at one time with their son Jinggoy, served together at the Senate while half-brother JV Ejercito got elected as San Juan City Mayor.

 Former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who succeeded to complete the un-expired term of Mr. Estrada and later run for her own election into the presidency became the next longest resident of Malacañang. Mrs. Arroyo was also plagued with the political dynasty issue during her nine years of office at Malacañang. No less than two of her sons, Mikey and Dato, served together at the same Congress along with her brother-in-law, the late Negros Occidental Congressman Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo. 

If it is any credit to him, our country’s first bachelor president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III had no political dynasty to speak of during his first three years in office. Called P-Noy during his term, he was more a product of “necro-politics” and not of political dynasty. Like his late mother, then Senator got swept into office by popular votes following the demise of his late mother on August 1, 2010.

Now, we have former Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte who was popularly elected into office even as he has his own political dynasty at the same time in power. Then 71-year-old, Mayor Duterte won the presidency by more than six million votes’ margin from his next nearest rival former Interior Sec. Mar Roxas II who comes from a pedigreed political dynasty.

His children by first marriage, Sara Zimmerman Duterte and Paolo Duterte run and won as a team, Mayor and Vice Mayor, respectively. President Duterte would later reveal Sara tendered her resignation as Mayor a few weeks after their elections into office following conceiving her third child. But the President prevailed upon her to stay on.

The President though did not do the same for his son Paolo. The Vice Mayor resigned his post after having figured in the P6.4-billion shabu smuggling scandal at the Bureau of Customs and at the heels of the controversy stirred by his daughter’s 18th birthday photo shoots at Malacañang Palace.

The President’s equally popular daughter confirmed last Friday she might consider running for Congress and vie for the Speakership. This was obviously to spite Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez who frowned at Sara’s organizing a local political party in Davao provinces. Currently on her first term as Mayor, Sara is not discounting she may opt to run for re-election instead as Mayor.

Originally, the 40-year-old Sara was among those named by Senate president Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III to run in the 12-man Senate slate of the PDP-Laban in the coming mid-term elections next year. Pimentel is the party president of the PDP-Laban while Alvarez is the secretary-general.

The realities on the ground of political dynasties in our country are certainly the challenges to any leadership for that matter. With just one more regular session left before the holding of the May 2019 elections, can the Senate president and the Speaker – who are both running for re-elections under President Duterte’s PDP-Laban – deliver a law banning political dynasty?

It would be worth waiting to see if the 17th Congress succeed – where others failed – to pass such a law to include presidential dynasty.