Goodbye, dynasties?

Don’t look now, but amid his unprecedented anti-corruption crackdown, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is reportedly embarking on another ambitious undertaking: the abolition, or at least the regulation of political dynasty-building.

- ANA MARIE PAMINTUAN

The initiative has raised eyebrows, since it is emanating from the House of Representatives — a chamber overflowing with dynasts including its current Speaker - and backed by a President who himself is part of political dynasties.

But if people can suspend skepticism in President Marcos’ “mahiya naman kayo” anti-corruption campaign, they can also give him the benefit of the doubt, if it’s true that he is supporting the House initiative to finally pass an anti-dynasty law, as mandated by the 1987 Constitution.

This week, as Speaker Bojie Dy publicly urged his fellow congressmen to support the anti-dynasty measure filed by Akbayan in the House, a monkey wrench was immediately tossed in: Deputy Speaker Ronaldo Puno and the National Unity Party (NUP) proposed Charter change or Cha-cha through a constitutional convention.

Dy belongs to the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas, the political party chaired by BBM. Does the NUP move also have BBM’s blessing?

Cha-cha initiatives in previous years were always doomed by two proposals: term extensions or the lifting of term limits, and a ban or at least regulation of dynasties.

Will the resurrected Cha-cha effort sabotage the anti-dynasty proposal?

Flood control projects became substandard and even “ghosts” partly because the system of checks and balances in government also became nonexistent in many areas.

That system breakdown is facilitated when members of a single clan occupy nearly every key government position in a particular area, from the barangay all the way to Congress.