Term limit breeds dynasties — Alvarez

The term limit provision in the Constitution should be removed since it had resulted in family members of Filipino politicians to seek elective posts giving rise to so-called political dynasties, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said.

Alvarez, in a radio interview, said political dynasties grew when limits were imposed on the terms of elected officials.

“Before we don’t have term limits, and there was no political dynasty,” he said.

“What I remember was that a politician does not have any other family member who is into politics. The ‘bright people’ who crafted the Constitution, that included (then Constitutional Commission Commissioner) Christian Monsod, they placed a term limit, so that resulted in political dynasties,” Alvarez said.

Even in the United States, there are no term limits on elected officials. Even justices of their Supreme Court serve until they die, there’s no retirement age, Alvarez said.

“They stay in their posts while their health permits them. They should place a value on the experience of individuals,” Alvarez said.

“It is not easy to study the legislative-making process. So an elected official who becomes used to that field is suddenly told “you can stop now, let somebody else take over” [as a result of the term limit provision],” he said.

“Those experienced should be valued and the longer one remains in the elected position, one understands the job more,” Alvarez said.

“So for me, I wanted to push the removal of the term limit and the anti-dynasty provision to be retained in the Federal Constitution,” Alvarez added.

He said local officials should have the key responsibility in the information drive on the shift to a Federal system of government.

“Governors, mayors, councilors should cascade information on Federalism to their constituents. They should explain the advantages of the new setup of government. Why did Malaysia, the United States and most European countries adopt this form of government? All of these countries have progressed,” Alvarez added.

“The problem facing the nation is the underdevelopment of the regions. Most of them are too dependent on policies of the national government. So they are usually left with little options in their regions,” he said.

“If you give each of the regions more power to lift themselves up, all of them are expected to improve since all of them have different potentials which are not maximized. With the federal form of government, each region will be given the chance to chart its own destiny,” Alvarez said.