Koko Pimentel to fast-track antidynasty bill

Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III. INQUIRER.net file photo

MANILA, Philippines–Before election fever hits, Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III intends for his Senate committee on electoral reforms to get cracking on a bill aimed at ending the concentration of political power in a very few families.

Pimentel said his committee will resume discussions on the antidynasty bill on Jan. 27, and it will speed up the process so that the measure can be tackled in the plenary.

“I will have that fast-tracked. That’s one of the 2015 commitments of the committee,” he said in a phone interview.

There are three antipolitical dynasty bills pending in the Senate. Two of them were filed by Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago and one by Sen. JV Ejercito, whose brother, father and mother, among other relatives, are all holding elective office at the same time.

Limit is one

Pimentel said he wants a version of the bill that would cover both national and local public offices, and disagrees with one proposal that such a bill only cover provincial offices.

He said the bill must not allow more than one member of a family to hold elective office at the same time.

“If you want to give flesh to the antidynasty provision in the Constitution, it must prevent a dynasty, meaning two members holding public office at the same time,” he said.

In the House of Representatives, there are plans to dilute the committee version of their own antidynasty bill to allow up to two members of a family to hold public office simultaneously, instead of just one as originally proposed. This amendment is seen to make the measure more acceptable to lawmakers, several of whom belong to dominant political clans.

Optimistic

Asked for his assessment of the chances of an antidynasty bill being approved by the Senate plenary, Pimentel noted that the chamber had approved a similar measure in the past.

He believes the senators would be reluctant to oppose the measure. “I think no one in the Senate wants to be seen as blocking it,” he said.

In her antidynasty bills, Santiago proposes to prohibit the spouses and relatives up to the second degree of consanguinity or affinity of an incumbent elective official seeking reelection from running for any elective office within the same province, city, municipality or the same office in the same election.

In case the elective official has a national constituency, the prohibition would only apply within the same province where the elective official is a registered voter. The bill also seeks to disallow relatives within the prohibited degree who have no kin in elective office from running for any local or national office in an election.

In all cases, relatives within the prohibited degree would be banned from immediately succeeding to the position of an incumbent elective official, whether local or national.

Ejercito’s bill also seeks to ban the spouses and relatives up to the second degree of an incumbent elective official seeking reelection from running for any public office in the same election, but only in the same province.

Prospective violation

Some parties have doubted that Congress could approve an antidynasty bill considering that many of its members are in prospective violation of such a law.

Ejercito’s half-brother, Jinggoy Estrada, is also a senator, and their father, deposed president and convicted plunderer Joseph Estrada, is the mayor of Manila. Ejercito’s mother, ex-movie starlet Guia Gomez, is the mayor of San Juan.

Siblings Pia and Alan Peter Cayetano are serving in the Senate at the same time. Their brother, Lino, is the House representative for Taguig while Alan Peter’s wife, Lani, is Taguig mayor.

Sen. Nancy Binay also has relatives in national and local offices. Her father is Vice President Jejomar Binay, her sister Abigail Binay is a House representative for Makati, while brother Jejomar Erwin is the mayor of Makati.

Three other Senate members have relatives serving in the House.

Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr.’s wife, Lani, is a Cavite representative, Sen. Cynthia Villar’s son, Mark, is a House member representing Las Piñas representative, and Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s mother, Imelda, is an Ilocos Norte representative. In addition, Marcos’ sister, Imee, is the governor of Ilocos Norte.