Groups to Marcos, Senate: Junk fake antidynasty bill
Big business and advocacy groups on Tuesday urged the Senate to junk the House-approved antidynasty bill, saying it seeks to protect political clans instead of dismantling them.
Approved on third and final reading by the House on June 3, House Bill No. 8389 seeks to ban relatives within the second degree of consanguinity and affinity from holding elective posts in the same level of government.
But it allows members of a clan to simultaneously run for positions in the national level, Congress, province, and city or municipality.
“We strongly reject HB 8389. We call on the Senate to refuse to act on this measure and on the President to veto it should it reach his desk,” the groups said in a joint statement.
The statement was issued on the eve of a special session of Congress called by President Marcos to consider the passage of key legislation, including the antipolitical dynasty bill. The Senate has yet to pass its own version.
‘Affliction of dynasties’
The statement was signed by the Management Association of the Philippines, the Makati Business Club, the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, the Shareholders’ Association of the Philippines, the Justice Reform Initiative, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting and the Philippine Institute of Arbitrators.
“Filipinos should be spared of HB 8389 and, as a nation, should finally rid itself of the affliction of dynasties,” they said. “Instead of fulfilling the mandate of our 1987 Constitution to dismantle political dynasties, it does the exact opposite: it institutionalizes the entrenched control of political families.”
The groups said the House bill, if enacted into law, will allow a single family to simultaneously hold the offices of governor, district representative, and mayor in one province, while other members serve as senator, vice president or president.
It will also enable “unlimited succession,” noting that a termed-out official could hand the position to a spouse, child, or sibling without a waiting period, they added.
It’s not far-fetched to see family members swapping their seats once their respective term expires, and relatives beyond the second degree, including uncles, aunts and cousins, holding offices across every level of government, the groups said.
Both the bills filed by the Makabayan and Akbayan blocs in the House had sought to ban relatives within the fourth degree from simultaneously running for office in the national or local level, and from immediately succeeding one another in the same post.
Senate Bill No. 1901 approved by the Senate committee on electoral reforms seeks to ban the simultaneous and successive holding of posts in either local or national level by relatives within the second degree of consanguinity.
The groups said the public should not be misled by the House bill’s provisions, which seem to restrict dynasties, but do the opposite.
