Why should decent voters reject all political dynasties?
Here in Cebu, there are some families with no less than six members within first and second degrees of consanguinity and affinity, all running together in three different districts. They have been doing this for the past five elections. We should reject all of them.
Why should we denounce, reject, and fight against family dynasties? What are the reasons? Let me count the whys? First, family dynasties are the most blatant expression of political greed. These people want to amass all powers and prerogatives in vital decision-making in the Executive and Legislative branches of government, and then put their minions, cohorts, cronies, and puppets in the Judiciary, the prosecution service and the police. They want to corner juicy government contracts via their dummy companies engaged in public works and trading supplies. Political dynasties are not only driven by greed for power. Their appetite for corruption, plunder, and graft are insatiable. The people know these usual suspects. They should be taught a bitter lesson by delivering to all of them a resounding downfall in the polls.
We should reject these greedy families because they want to monopolize politics and control of the economy. They are the complete enemies of democracy and free enterprise. They kill the dreams of qualified new aspirants who do not have the money and the logistics to mount a strong campaign. The family dynasties can buy the loyalty of mayors and barangay captains in exchange for money and appointments to the LGUs or agencies run by influence-peddling and patronage politics. We should reject family dynasties because they are elitists, exclusionists, and do not want new faces and new voices to join the democratic decision-making processes. They want to control everything and desire to totally eliminate all attempts at opposing their greed.
We should denounce all members of political dynasties because they do not have any basic respect for the rights of others to rise in the political, social, and economic strata. They want to be the only rich clan, the only powerful family, the only one group of close relatives who should make all the decisions in and for the whole nation. These families should be stopped by refusing to vote for them, regardless of whether they are qualified or not. By being a member of any family dynasty a candidate from among them should not merit our support because they are monopolists and exclusivists, regardless of whether they are qualified. By being a member of any dynasty they should, by their very fact of affiliation, be deemed unworthy of our support.
Political dynasties abet corruption in the government, facilitate plunder of government funds, and encourage public officials to collaborate and conspire in shady deals and questionable government contracts and transactions. I remember a Cabinet member holding the budget portfolio. His wife was on the House of Representatives’ committee on budget and ways and means. This kind of conflict of interest makes the principle of checks and balance non-operational. These people do not have the slightest shade of delicadeza. They are so grossly disrespectful of the values of integrity and decency in the handling of public funds. This happens only because families are blatantly monopolizing powers and lording it over many agencies and branches of government.
It is now time to deliver a very strong message against these people. The nation will be far better off without them. They are the true nuisance candidates. They are the enemies of the people. We should denounce and reject them in the polls. That is the least we can do to save our democracy from being devoured by political dynasties.
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