3 Tulfos, 2 Estradas, 2 Cayetanos, 2 Villars: next Senate shaping up as ‘family enterprise’
If the latest senatorial preference surveys are accurate in predicting the outcome of the 2025 senatorial elections, there will likely be more senators elected from a few influential families.
There is no law prohibiting members of political clans from simultaneously serving in the Senate, Senate President Francis Escudero said on Wednesday amid observations that the chamber has practically become a “family enterprise” with several of its members sharing the same surname.
“There’s also no limitation on who should be voted into office or not,” Escudero told members of the Senate media.
“In a democracy, majority always wins and it just so happened that they won. That only means that most of the voters chose them,” he said.
Escudero made the remarks after brothers Erwin and Ben Tulfo ranked first and second, respectively, in the latest Pulse Asia survey on the voters’ preferences for possible senatorial candidates in the May 2025 midterm elections.
Tulfo brothers
Erwin, currently the ACT-CIS partylist representative, and Ben, a popular broadcaster and social media personality, are siblings of Sen. Raffy Tulfo, who won a Senate seat during the 2022 balloting.
Erwin is seeking to join Raffy as a member of the administration-backed Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas, while Ben has yet to file his certificate of candidacy.
If they win in the next year’s polls, this would be the first time that three members of a family would serve in the 24-member chamber at the same time.
Reserved seats?
At present, six senators- or one-fourth of the Senate- belong to some of the country’s most influential political families.
Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada is the half-brother of Sen. JV Ejercito.
Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano’s sister, reelectionist Sen. Pia Cayetano, is gunning for a second six-year term.
On the other hand, Sen. Cynthia Villar is the mother of Sen. Mark Villar.
Cynthia, who is set to finish her second consecutive term as senator next year, is likely to be replaced by her daughter, Las Pinas City Rep. Camille Villar, who also belongs to President Marcos’ senatorial ticket.
Antidynasty law
The Senate chief made it clear that he would not impede the passage of a law that would ban political dynasties in the country.
“Because I am a product of that, I won’t block it. If my vote is needed to pass that, I will vote for it because it goes against my interests,” Escudero said when asked about the chances of a passing an anti-political dynasty law in Congress.
But getting involved in the drafting of that bill would be a conflict of interest, so he said he would only intervene if his vote was needed to pass it. With a report from Maila Ager, Inquirer.net
Read more: Escudero says he won’t block anti-political dynasty bill
