Group confident Congress will pass bill vs political dynasties

AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—A group that is campaigning for an end to political dynasties in the country said it is confident that Congress will finally pass an antidynasty law before the next presidential elections in 2016.

The Movement Against Dynasties (MAD) said this in a statement after attending the Senate committee on electoral reforms and people’s participation chaired by Sen. Koko Pimentel Jr. held a second public hearing on the issue early this week.

MAD chair Quintin Paredes San Diego, who submitted the group’s final position paper to the Senate the day before the May 22 hearing, said discussions and debate on the constitutional prohibition against political dynasties have been going on for the past 27 years and should now stop.

He said the people were already sick and tired of the “zarzuela” and that the senators and representatives should now do their part and pass the enabling law for constitutional prohibition to take effect.

Enough has been said and debated regarding the “missing and intentionally ignored” enabling law to complete the implementation of Section 26 of the Constitution that will “… put an end to the violation by the congressmen and senators of the Constitution that prohibits the establishment of political dynasties,” he said.

MAD noted that during the hearing, Pimentel himself several times referred to political dynasties as “evil.”

Political dynasties “are the source of corruption, massive cheating,  violence, poverty, poor education and the stranglehold over business, the police and even the military where dynasties rule,” said MAD cochair and spokesman Danilo P. Olivares.

He questioned the fuss being made about the absence of a clear-cut definition of what a political dynasty is.

“How close could they be to a family dynasty when a brother and a sister sit as senators and the brother’s wife is mayor, when the father is mayor and a son and his half-brother sit as senators, when a father is vice president, a daughter is senator, another daughter is congressman, and a son is mayor?” Olivares said.

Olivares said there was no need to discuss the definition of what constitutes a political dynasty because the Senate should just refer to the Family Code.