Calling it a “budol” or scam, the House minority bloc rejected House Bill 8389 during its sponsorship hearing in the plenary.
The measure, titled “An Act Prohibiting Political Dynasties in National and Local Elective Offices,” would prohibit political dynasties in government and was principally authored by Speaker Faustino Dy III and Majority Leader Sandro Marcos, with 173 other lawmakers as coauthors.
It seeks to implement a provision of the 1987 Constitution that has remained unenforced for four decades.
Lawmakers who first pushed for such a measure dismissed it as a “watered-down” version of a true anti-political dynasty law.
Among its critics were Akbayan Partylist Representative Chel Diokno and Caloocan 2nd District Representative Edgar Erice, who shared their thoughts during the plenary session.
Diokno said the proposed law does not directly bar political dynasties, as it still allows related persons to hold positions at the national, legislative, and local levels.
“House Bill 8389 will not put an end to dynasties; it will only allow them to maintain, and not just maintain, but to expand their hold on power. Even if the proposition becomes a law, political dynasties will continue to promulgate,” he said.
An animated Erice, on the other hand, called Representative Zia Alonto Adiong’s proposal a “budol bill” as, rather than serving its actual purpose, the bill would only further institutionalize political dynasties.
“My final answer is this is not an anti-political dynasty law, this is a ‘budol,’” he exclaimed.
Enabling Charter mandate
Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms chairperson and bill sponsor Adiong, however, deemed the bill a monumental step towards enabling a provision in the 1987 Constitution.
“Today, we have the opportunity to make history. Today, we fulfill a longstanding constitutional mandate 40 years in the making,” he said in his opening speech.
The bill’s provisions bar relatives of officials from holding positions within the same government jurisdiction up to the second degree of consanguinity or affinity.
The stipulation includes a particular official’s parents, children, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, spouse, parents-in-law, children-in-law, grandparents-in-law and grandchildren-in-law.
Adiong noted that the primary objective of the proposed bill is to provide a constitutional framework that is not restrictive, as he repeatedly emphasized that it is up to the public to decide whom they wish to elect in a democratic country.
“It uses the limited authority granted to Congress by the Constitution to define political dynasties in a manner that enables their prohibition, while remaining fully consistent with the other rights and principles enshrined in our fundamental law,” Adiong said.