But where is the mother of all dynasties?

There has lately been a lot of finger-wagging about the emergence of an electoral consortium of three so-called political dynasties, the banding together of the Marcos, Duterte, and Macapagal-Arroyo forces for the May 2022 presidential elections. But for all of that finger-wagging, there seems to be a deliberate omission of one other dynasty, the mother in fact of all dynasties. That no significant member is running excuses it not one bit.

This mother of all dynasties is the Aquino-Cojuangco family. There is no finger-wagging about them because the finger-waggers are their own supporters. They do not eat their own kind. This dynasty has spawned a seeming cult following but is so rigid in its self-righteous scruples they ended cancelling their own selves out. They made themselves irrelevant in a coming exercise that, ironically, is so crucial to their own future and survival.

The Aquino-Cojuangco dynasty boasts of having had two presidents, Corazon Cojuangco Aquino and her only son Benigno Cojuangco Aquino III. The Macapagal-Arroyo dynasty also had two presidents, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her father Diosdado Macapagal, but hasn't had much success elsewhere. The sitting president is Rodrigo Duterte plus a few local Dutertes. Bongbong Marcos can make it two presidents after his father if he wins.

But nobody beats the extensiveness of political power once wielded by the Aquino-Cojuangco dynasty. Corazon Cojuangco Aquino's husband was Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. He was a senator. His father, Benigno Sr., was also a senator. His uncle Herminio was vice governor while his grandfather Servillano, the patriarch, was a delegate to the Malolos Congress.

Ninoy's brother Agapito "Butz" Aquino was a senator, and so was their sister Tessie Aquino Oreta. Her son Antolin Oreta was mayor of Malabon. An Aquino cousin, Jesli Lapus, was a congressman and Cabinet member. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III's first cousin, Bam Aquino, son of Ninoy's brother Paul, was a senator.

Corazon's father Jose Cojuangco Sr. was a congressman and so was her brother Jose "Peping" Jr. Her estranged first cousin Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco was a governor and congressman while his son Mark was also a congressman, as was Mark's brother Charlie. If we throw in Peping's son-in-law Dodot Jaworski, husband to his daughter Mikee, he was a congressman too. Lest I forget, Peping's wife Tingting was a governor as well.

Given the extent of its political power, it is difficult to imagine the Aquino-Cojuangco dynasty would see the day when its influence would be reduced to virtual irrelevance at a time when it would have needed as much muscle and clout to prevent the second ascendancy of its political arch-enemy, the Marcos Family.

I think the demise, if we can call it that, of the Aquino-Cojuangco dynasty, began with the Cory presidency. The popular uprising that ousted Marcos and swept Cory into power turned out so intoxicating everybody on board that self-righteous bandwagon became exclusionary. They started alienating those who were not with them even if the only reason is that they were just different. They set in motion a cancel culture that would divide the nation.

Assuming themselves the only ones correct, educated, cultured, and entitled, they became bigots. If you were not with them you were against them. You are not allowed to be yourself. Everything you think, say or do is bad, wrong, selfish, malicious, immoral, illegal, and criminal. They turned this country into a nation of insiders (they) and outsiders (the rest of us). Well, the outsiders are now at the gates, in numbers so overwhelming that it is terrifying.