By Brian Jules Campued
Aiming to prohibit political dynasties in the Philippines and to “fulfill the 1987 Constitution’s mandate,” Senator Robinhood Padilla has filed Senate Bill (SB) 2730.
In a statement Monday, Padilla said the bill will “break the barriers preventing the best and the brightest” people from serving the country as the measure is also a “step towards leveling the playing field in politics and governance”.
“Political dynasties, in effect, have exhausted resources to attain economic and political dominance while at the same time compromising political competition and undermining accountability,” the senator stated.
Padilla also cited a 2011 research study from Harvard Academy, which stated that political dynasties develop resulting in elites to “persist and reproduce their power over time, undermining the effectiveness of institutional reforms in the process”.
The senator also noted another study by Tusalem and Pe-Aguirre in 2013, which states that congressional funds are higher in areas with more political dynasties.
“These provinces also have higher rates of crime and poor governance, as well as lower spending on employment, infrastructure, and health care,” he said, based on the study.
SB 2730 prohibits a “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” from running for office in the same area or party-list in the same election.
“(N)o person who has a political dynasty relationship to the incumbent shall immediately succeed to the position of the latter,” the bill states.
The bill also requires any person running for public office to file a sworn statement with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that he or she does not have a relationship with any incumbent public official running for a public office in the same city or province.