IF you ask job applicants, whether for public office or in the private sector, on what their motivations were, the answer is always “to get an employment” that will earn them salaries and benefits.
The motivation to seek and hopefully land a job is, therefore, the pay; service follows as an incident for the remunerations received. In the job interviews I had with applicants, the question they ask is how much the compensation would be. The thought process is simple and logical. But getting elected to a government position defies this logic.
Yes, politicians “apply” for public office, and voters are the “interviewers.” They do not enter politics to get the job for the amount of pay because they know the government is not a business enterprise.
Candidates for elected positions are aware that while the government is the biggest employer, it is a noble organization where the motivation is to serve, not to be served. To be the servant, not the ruler. And the pay is incidental to the service they offer.
But we know better. They are actually moved by the prospect of gaining privileges, perks, power and influence. If not, why do candidates spend millions of pesos to get elected despite the relatively meager salary they stand to receive and the responsibility they are supposed to bear? If not for the absolute power and the influence that corrupts absolutely, they will not be willing to use violence, threats, intimidation, and individual or character assassination just to be elected in government and “serve the people.”
The disease
Traditional politicians from the same family or clan have, for generations, consolidated wealth and power. As a subset of political dynasty, they control businesses, opportunities, and even the chances of being elected to political positions, such that no one in his or her right mind will have neither the guts nor the wherewithal to challenge these political dynasts.
Rep. Felimon Espares cites in House Bill 7199 that around 70 percent to 80 percent of incumbent government officials come from political dynasties. The United Nations Development Program found that out of 77 provinces in the Philippines included in its study, 72 came from political families.
For nearly four decades without the enabling law, studies by reputable institutions like the Ateneo School of Government and the University of the Philippines Center for Integrative and Development Studies show that most areas — particularly outside Luzon, where political dynasties rule — “frequently suffer from acute poverty and lower human development indices.”
Where power is concentrated in one family or clan, checks and balances are absent and the culture of impunity and political patronage is developed.
The cure: A yet-to-be-heeded call
The framers of the 1987 Constitution that was drafted in the aftermath of martial rule and the bloodless revolution that ended it, know it. They mandated in Article II, Section 26 thereof that “[t]he State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service, and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by law.” But that provision is not self-executing.
In trusting the spirit of the first EDSA Revolution and the supposed altruism of politicians, lawyer Christian Monsod admits — 39 years later — that they in the commission committed a serious blunder. That is, leaving to Congress the enactment of a law that specifies who, up to what degree of kinship, and what positions are covered by the term “political dynasty.”
For nearly 40 years that Congress deliberately withheld the passage of such a law, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in September 2026 that Congress’ manifest failure to enact an anti-political dynasty law constitutes a grave abuse of discretion. The high court likewise issued a mandamus directing Congress to pass that very important piece of legislation.
“That is a mandate, not a suggestion; the people’s will is not optional,” declares a group called Advocates of National Interest (ANI), composed largely by retired generals and flag officers from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP) and former high-level officials in the public and private sectors. Among them are AFP Chiefs General Renato de Villa, Generoso Senga, Alexander Yano and Victor Ibrado; former PNP chief Police Dir. Gen. Recaredo Sarmiento II; Navy chiefs Adm. Mateo Mayuga and Vice Adm. Emilio Marayag; and Army chief Raul Urgello; Lt. Gen. Edilberto Adan and Lt. Gen. Samuel Bagasin; Maj. Gen. Melchor Rosales, Brig. Gen. Manuel Mariano and Brig. Gen. Eliseo Rio; Col. Mariano Santiago, Col. Guillermo Cunanan and Col. Plaridel Abaya; Lt. Col. Alejandro Flores; Maj. Renato Valencia; and Capt. Roberto Yap.
In a strongly worded one-page statement signed by its members and published in a newspaper of national circulation on Nov. 2, 2026, ANI hailed the Supreme Court for calling out and “for holding Congress accountable for 39 years of inaction. In the same publication, ANI demanded that “senators and (district and party-list) representatives fulfill their noble duty to the nation. x x x enact an effective and meaningful anti-political dynasty law — one that is faithful to the intent of the Constitution and the sovereign power of the people, and not one that shields, accommodates, or further entrenches the very dynastic structures it is meant to dismantle.”
This demand for Congress to act resonates deeply not just with these men of esteemed status and reputation who might have hung their uniforms, but not their patriotism.
The Batangas Forum for Good Governance and Development, a group of senior academics, retired generals, flag rank and field-grade officers from the uniformed services, lawyers, doctors, other professionals, and captains of industry, echoes the same clarion call. Incumbent President Nelson Terrible says the time for the passage of this enabling law should have been decades ago to save the nation from further economic and political decline.
And as more civil-society and cause-oriented groups unite and raise their voices to protest how the 2027 national budget is being mangled while being called “ignorant,” the message is clear: We, the sovereign Filipino people, are no longer taking things seated.
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