Puno body approves final provisions vs politicial dynasty

The consultative committee created by President Rodrigo Duterte to review the Constitution on Wednesday approved a set of provisions that would bar members of political dynasties from running for the same position in elections.

In an en banc session, all 18 committee members agreed on the definition of a political dynasty and the conditions by which members of the same family could run for or hold elective positions.

Dynasty defined

The body defined political dynasty as one that “exists when a family whose members are related up to the second degree of consanguinity or affinity whether such relations are legitimate, illegitimate, half or full blood, maintains or is capable of maintaining political control by succession or by simultaneously running for or holding elective positions.”

The 1987 Constitution prohibits political dynasties but this requires an enabling law to be implemented.

Second degree

The body agreed that no person related to an incumbent elective official within the second degree of consanguinity or affinity may run for the same position in the immediately following election.

All persons related within the second degree of consanguinity will be prohibited from running simultaneously for more than one national and one regional or local position, it said.

Former Chief Justice Reynato Puno, committee chair, said he did not give “a nanosecond thought to the possibility that in voting to regulate political dynasties, we shall be incurring the ire of the gods in our political firmament whose fortunes may be compromised.”