Supreme Court vs Congress

The Supreme Court has spoken, echoing the long-standing demand of the Filipino people: abolish all political dynasties that have turned the democratic ideal that sovereignty resides with the people, not a “narrow few,” into a laughingstock.

Political dynasties have monopolized power (concentrated among political clans with name recall and financial muscle), weakened checks and balances (reducing accountability of elected officials and oversight over their public actions), worsened socioeconomic inequality (ensuring generational poverty and unequal national development), and perpetuated patronage politics (which prizes loyalty over merit-based governance).

The House of Representatives has already passed a version of the antipolitical dynasty act, but it still leaves much to be desired. The House—traditionally supportive of whoever sits in Malacañang—could no longer ignore the people’s clarion call to ban political dynasties, most of whose members belong to ruling families, from all local and national elective offices.

The passage of House Bill No. 8389 on third and final reading last June 3 came on the heels of pressure from the executive branch—it came from no less than President Marcos, who made it a point to include the proposed measure as one of his four political reform bills during a Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council meeting on Dec. 9, 2025.

But Senate Committee Report No. 33 on Senate Bill No. 1901, adopted by 12 senators on Feb. 24, remains languishing in the Senate plenary and still cannot advance to voting on second reading, although interpellations began as early as March 3.

Political, judicial pressure. We should note Mr. Marcos’ decision to expend considerable political capital on this bill, given that he himself hails from a political dynasty in Ilocos Norte. His eldest son, House Majority Leader Ferdinand “Sandro” Marcos, is among the bill’s principal authors, along with Speaker Faustino Dy III, a member of the influential political clan in Isabela province. We commend both House leaders for pushing hard to pass the bill.

Besides political pressure from the President, the Supreme Court’s ruling on Aug. 26—which called out Congress’ stubbornness in crafting such a law over the past 39 years since the adoption of the 1987 Constitution—also adds pressure that could force the Senate to comply with the constitutional fiat. Eight siblings—the Cayetanos, Estrada-Ejercitos, Tulfos, and Villars—come from four political families and serve simultaneously. This is unprecedented in our country’s legislative history; the eight influential siblings make up a third of the 24-member chamber.

The House itself is a chamber of dynastic power, moving in lockstep with local government politics, where spouses, parents, siblings, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews occupy most of the more than 18,000 elective posts in the country. About eight out of 10 House members in 2024 are scions of political families, according to the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.

Dynastic families have perpetuated sociopolitical and economic inequality in our country, given that they are relatively few compared to the size of our country, which has 112 million citizens and 68.4 million voters.

The high court has called out Congress’ bullheaded refusal to perform its constitutional duty for 39 years as a “grave abuse of discretion” that has caused “manifest injustice” to Filipino voters.

Now is the best time to pass the law, since the next President may not have the same political will—and agenda—to compel administration allies to do so. Mr. Marcos views the antipolitical dynasty act as a key legacy of his administration, along with 23 other priority bills he hopes to pass before his term ends.

The House’s change of heart to support the passage of such a law did not come out of a vacuum. The people’s persistent calls for wide-ranging government reforms—following the multibillion-peso flood control scandal exposed by Mr. Marcos last year, which has implicated influential lawmakers and should not spare some members of the Marcos Cabinet, who have their hands in the cookie jar—buttress the law’s foundation.

Both the House and Senate versions of the bill bar spouses and relatives up to the second degree of consanguinity and affinity, whether legitimate or illegitimate, full or half-blood, from running for and holding elective office. However, the Supreme Court ruled that the ban on dynasties must extend to the fourth degree, and that covered persons cannot run simultaneously or successively for the same or any other covered elective position, both local and national.

Politicians can argue that this is impractical because it would wipe out the entire leadership structure, especially at the local level, but this is essentially what the Supreme Court ruling seeks to stop—”the concentration of political power within a narrow few” that “has distorted democracy, weakened accountability, and fostered conditions conducive to corruption and political patronage.”

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