BRIONES, ISABEL LIRA, BRIGITTE POLISCI A57

POLITICAL DYNASTY

First and foremost, Political Dynasty is a term coined by the Filipinos. It is when a member of a politician's family run for the same or other government office as the said politician. Political Dynasty is also the equivalent of "oligarchy" in political science. There is actually a law that prohibits political dynasties in the Philippines. This law is called the Anti-Political Dynasty Act. The law states that political dynasties should not be practiced in order to guarantee equal access and opportunity to public office and public service. What is the problem with political dynasties in the Philippines? The problem with political dynasties, aside from the fact that a large percentage of the government is composed of families (e.g., Estrada, Cojuangco, Angara, Aquino, Arroyo) who practice political dynasties, is that it is mostly the members of the family who run for the same or different office and once elected, the family becomes very powerful. Also, the practice of political dynasty does not give chance to other aspiring uncorrupt politicians who do not belong to those notable families since most people only vote for those they know. A political dynasty can also be used as a form of corruption. For example, a whole family of politicians steals money from the government and keep it to themselves to make their family richer. Studies show that alongside the practice of political dynasty, corruption rate also increases. Meaning, the money we work hard for goes not to our country, but to the pockets of the well-known families we voted for thus resulting to a higher poverty and unemployment rate.

How does a political dynasty start, anyway? It starts when a person becomes powerful in the government that he/she pushes in his/her family members (usually the children) into office or any politics-related job. His/her child, then, will be groomed, guided, and taken care of until this child is good enough to take actions by himself/herself and advance to higher positions. These families usually maintain an army of trusted staff in order to keep their secrets and dirty work unknown to the public. This leads to more and more waves of family members entering politics and exerting more effort in rigging and blocking other candidates during the election period. Political dynasties may be a bad thing even if the first politician of the family has become a great leader (as we suppose) because continuing a legacy of a person is not always effective since our world, in general, is changing and not all actions undertaken in the past are the solutions to the problems we have now. Being a great leader does not flow in the blood. It varies from person to person. People have different strategies and it is up to them how they choose to execute those. Yes, their strategies may be good, but their way of executing it is not. Yes, their ideas may be good, but they do not know how to put it into combat. Being related to a great/powerful/well-known politician does not guarantee the same kind of service this person rendered. It may get you in the position, but it does not mean you are really qualified. Heres when the term lutuan comes in. Think of an effective political dynasty. I bet you cannot name even one. In one way or another, each political dynasty in the Philippines had been involved in dirty controversy/ies.