2 MIN READ

By SHERWIN DE VERA
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY — The Koalisyong Makabayan withdrew its support for the substitute anti-political dynasty bill being pushed by House leadership, saying the measure weakens the constitutional mandate to prohibit political dynasties.

In a statement, the bloc said it cannot support legislation that regulates political dynasties rather than banning them outright. The progressive party-list bloc cited Article II, Section 26 of the 1987 Constitution, which directs the State to prohibit political dynasties as defined by law.

“It says ‘prohibit.’ Any enabling law that falls short of outright prohibition is not reform — it is a mockery of the Constitution, and we refuse to be party to it,” the group stated, noting that the substitute measure still permits political families to maintain power.

The group said they will not be used for the “sham reform agenda” under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s administration, who belongs to a political dynasty and aims to continue it.

“For nearly four decades, Congress has violated the Constitutional mandate. Now it is worse: they want to violate it through a law that pretends to comply,” Makabayan said. “The substitute bill bears the fingerprints of the dynasties themselves — full of loopholes and deliberately designed to preserve the status quo.”

Kontra Daya also criticized the bill adopted by the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms for its lack of transparency, as it replaced the bill scheduled for discussion.

The election watchdog said the proposal was a diluted anti-dynasty reform supported by election reform advocates, aimed at banning relatives from holding public office simultaneously or successively, closing legal loopholes, and covering national and local positions.

“That even this diluted version has now been supplanted by an unnamed substitute measure raises serious doubts about the sincerity of this entire exercise.” Kontra Daya stated. “Why the secrecy? Why is a supposed reform being rewritten behind closed doors?”

The watchdog said that the development puts the Marcos administration under scrutiny because the President has publicly supported legislation banning political dynasties.

Kontra Daya stated that a true anti-political dynasty law should ban relatives within the fourth civil degree from running for the same office or for national positions, covering elective and key appointive posts. It should also stop political clans from using the party-list system and apply equally to all political families.

“When a Congress dominated by political clans abruptly replaces an already weak bill with an unnamed substitute version, it reinforces what many Filipinos already suspect: This ‘push’ is nothing more than political theater,” the group said.#nordis.net