One nepotist falls but dynasts thrive

Is a nepotist different from a dynast?

The ombudsman has sacked Commissioner on Higher Education Jo Mark Libre for nepotism. A 2020 appointee of president Rody Duterte, Libre was found guilty of employing kinsmen directly under his government supervision.

Libre allegedly committed other offenses. The Civil Service Commission deemed him liable for grave misconduct, serious dishonesty, fabrication of official documents and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service. He supposedly had padded reimbursements for a 2016 workshop in Singapore as a state university official in Davao del Norte.

That’s not all. During last year’s hearing on CHEd’s 2024 budget, lawmakers complained about Libre’s faults as overseer of 24 state universities and colleges. They alleged that he imposed guest speakers in meetings of SUC governing boards, then made them pay the honoraria and hotel and travel expenses.

The 1987 Revised Administrative Code (E.O. 292), Book V, Section 59, forbids nepotism. Most governments criminalize it.

Nepotism gives preferential treatment to relatives in government hiring and placement, elbowing out the deserving. It can lead to unfairness in the workplace, and cause tension and conflict with co-workers.

Nepotism often breeds cronyism; friends and family undermine meritocracy. Worse is corruption; relatives are granted contracts in exchange for kickbacks.

The 1987 Constitution specifically forbids family members of the President, Vice President, Senate President and House Speaker from government contracting. It also repeats the provisions of the 1960 Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

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Dynasts are multiple nepotists – yet get away with it. And there are so many of them.

Every elected official is entitled to one confidential employee, almost always a kinsman. Since relatives occupy various national and local positions, they employ as many confidants from their family.

In a never-ending rigodon, the confidants even switch positions with the electees in the next balloting. Dynasticism makes a mockery of the illegality of nepotism under the Constitution and laws.

Dynasts conceal family members’ grave misconduct, serious dishonesty, fabrication of official documents and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service. That makes possible their plunder of multibillion-peso flood control and other public works funds. Also, monopoly of provincial and city ports. As well as control of construction, hardware and fuel supply.

Dynast shamelessly divert roads, water supply and sewerage to their hilltop or seaside resorts. They do this with ease using congressional, provincial and municipal funds.

The contest among dynasts in the 1990s was to be first to compile P200-million ill-gotten wealth. In the 2000s it became the first to amass P2 billion. Today it’s in the tens of billions.

Dynast whisk away their loot to secret overseas accounts. They’re able to kill news stories when exposed – like in the Panama Papers on offshore deposits and Pandora Papers on financial secrets of thousands of politicians in 91 countries.

Only in extreme cases are dynasts’ assets exposed and confiscated. Recently the wealth of Rep. Arnolfo Teves was frozen when he was declared a terrorist for the multiple murders of Negros Oriental governor Roel Degamo and nine constituents in 2023. The P1.15-billion cash and real property of Maguindanao’s Ampatuan clan were seized after their 2009 massacre of 54 journalists and kinswomen of a political foe.

The 1987 Constitution also forbids political dynasties.

Article II, Declaration of Principles and State Policies, Section 26 states: “The State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by law.”

Thirty-six years since ratification of the Constitution, Congress has passed no such law. Equal access to opportunities for public service does not exist.

Two studies by Ateneo de Manila School of Government Dean Ronald U. Mendoza, PhD, proved this:

• “Seventy-five percent of district representatives, 85 percent of governors and 66.67 percent of mayors could be considered as dynastic; that political dynasties tend to dominate the major political parties and that candidates from political dynasties register larger winning ratios compared to non-dynastic candidates.” (“Political Dynasties in the Philippine Congress”)

• “Political dynasties are linked to weak political competition, poor accountability, concentration of political power and perpetuation of patron-client relations and traditional politics. Under these conditions, political dynasties contribute in sustaining poverty in a country.” (“Political Dynasties and Poverty: Resolving the Chicken or Egg Question”)

Dynasties are clearly unfair. Spouses and offspring simultaneously or successively occupy national and local positions. Same with siblings, half-siblings, grandparents and grandchildren.

Out of 24 senators two are brother and sister, two are step-brothers and two are mother and son.

Bills to define and limit dynasties to the second degree of consanguinity and affinity never saw the light of day. Present moves to amend the Constitution can even delete the anti-dynasty provision. Dynasts can even extend their tenures and lift term limits.

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