Belmonte: It’s tough to pass antidynasty bill

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. on Tuesday acknowledged the difficulty of passing a “meaningful” anti-political dynasty bill in Congress which President Benigno Aquino III deemed as one of the priority measures in his State of the Nation Address in July.

Belmonte said he wanted a bill that did not just comply with a provision in the 1987 Constitution prohibiting dynasties, implying that the current version in the House of Representatives would not be effective in suppressing the influence of political clans.

“If it’s a question of only complying with the constitutional provision… then I think it can be done. But you also want to have a really meaningful thing that works,” Belmonte told reporters.

The Constitution prohibits political dynasties “as may be defined by law,” but Congress has passed no such measure since 1987, as powerful families continue to dominate local and national politics.

Belmonte said he would prefer a bill “that targets a lot of the dynasties that are around, not only the more notorious ones.”

Critics have complained that House Bill 3587 is a diluted version of the original bill. It allows two members of a family to run for public office in an election, instead of just one in the original version.

The substitute bill states that a dynasty exists “when three or more individuals who are related within the second degree of consanguinity or affinity hold or run for national or local elective office in simultaneous or overlapping terms.”

The looser definition of dynasty in the bill is seen to be more palatable to Congress members, many or most of whom belong to political dynasties.

No date has been set for the bill to be put up for approval on second reading in plenary session.