Written by Angie M. Rosales Tuesday, 30 October 2012 00:00
http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/headlines/item/6282-solon-seeks-in-depth-anti-dynasty-bill-study
Amid rising clamor for a law against political dynasties, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile yesterday urged those proposing the enactment of a law prohibiting relatives of incumbent officials to run for any elective positions to conduct a thorough and extensive study of the bill before presenting it to Congress.
“That should be reviewed thoroughly before lawmakers can start deliberating on it to enlighten the public because most of those pushing it are those who could not get themselves elected, those who could not convince the voting public to vote for them,” he stressed.
The Senate chief, over the weekend, admitted that he is in favor of the bill effectively dismantling political clans from lording it over in the country, saying he is willing to step down from being a senator if only one of them — he and son, Cagayan Rep. Jack Enrile — will be allowed to remain engaged in politics.
Enrile, however, has misgivings as to whether there is indeed a need to come up with a specific law to impose such prohibition when the Constitution is clear against the existence of political dynasties.
Article II, Section 26 of the 1987 Constitution states that the “State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by law.”
Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, the proponent of the bill in the upper chamber, said in her explanatory note that Senate Bill 2649 will give force and effect to the said constitutional provision.
“That the playing field of the political arena should be levelled and opened to persons who are equally qualified to aspire on even terms with those from ruling politically dominant families. Philippine society, many sociologists note, revolves around the system of extended families. However, this extended family system, an otherwise beneficial concept when applied to the social aspects of human behavior, finds its pernicious effects in the political arena where public office becomes the exclusive domain of influential families and clans that are well-entrenched in Philippine politics.
“The monopoly of political power and public resources by such families affects the citizenry at the local and national levels. The socio-economic and political inequities prevalent in Philippine society limit public office to members of ruling families. In many instances, voters, for convenience and out of cultural mindset look up to these ruling families as dispensers of favors, and thus elect relatives of these politically dominant families,” she said.
Enrile said the Constitution already provides for the said prohibition. “If we don’t like the law. We want automatic operation, let’s change the Charter. We will have to amend the Constitution. It is the people’s mandate, not an order from the Congress or the Supreme Court,” he explained.
Nonetheless, whether there the bill will eventually be enacted into law, it will be the voice of the people that will still prevail, Enrile said. “There are those wanting to serve but they cannot even get themselves elected as barangay captain,” he said. It cannot be helped that the voting populace choose to vote for those already known to them or familiar faces, rather than neophytes who have yet to prove themselves in the field of public service, he added.