Senator Robin Padilla speaks to media members during an ambush interview at the Senate in Pasay City on Thursday, July 4, 2024. INQUIRER.net / Noy Morcoso
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Robin Padilla has filed a bill seeking to fulfill the 1987 Constitution’s mandate to prohibit political dynasties in the country.
In a statement on Monday, Padilla said his motivation for filing Senate Bill (SB) No. 2730 is the belief that it’s now time “to break the barriers that prevent the best and the brightest from serving the Filipino people.”
Citing a Harvard Academy Research Study, Padilla said political dynasties stem from the tendency of elites to “persist and reproduce their power over time, undermining the effectiveness of institutional reforms in the process.”
“Political dynasties, in effect, have exhausted resources to attain economic and political dominance while at the same time compromising political competition and undermining accountability,” he added.
According to the lawmaker, another study by Tusalem and Pe-Aguirre in 2013 noted that congressional funds are higher in areas with more political dynasties. However, he said these provinces also have higher crime rates, poor governance, and lower spending on employment, infrastructure, and health care. SB No. 2730 seeks to combat these problems.
“No spouse or person related within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity, whether legitimate or illegitimate, full or half blood, to an incumbent elective official seeking re-election, shall be allowed to hold or run for any elective office in the same city and/or province, or any party list in the same election,” the bill read.
“No person who has a political dynasty relationship to the incumbent shall immediately succeed to the position of the latter,” it added.
The bill also requires any person running for any elective public office to file a sworn statement with the Commission on Elections that he or she does not have a relationship with any incumbent public official running for an elective public office in the same city or province.
READ: Ex gov’t officials push anti-political dynasty law before 2025 polls