Sometimes social media, that platform being abused by many in peddling fake news, propaganda and brutal verbal attacks, yields truth bombs we all can use to clear our heads. One came up lately following the demented behavior in the Senate, forcing us to see things for what they are.
Said Atty. Ruben Carranza, a Senior Associate at the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) and Director of ICTJ’s Reparative Justice Program in New York City: “How do I even explain to my co-workers in NY and elsewhere who are following ICC-PH events why, in the Philippine Senate, there are 4 sets of siblings, 3 actors (or maybe more?), 2 crimes-against-humanity murder suspects, 2 extrajudicial-killing ex-policemen (one under Marcos and the other under Duterte), 3 children of ex-presidents who committed plunder, with one of them the sister of the current president and the son of the dictator who had his sister’s current ally, the vice president’s father, jailed at the ICC not for accountability but for power, and how almost all of them have spouses or siblings occupying other national or local political offices — EXCEPT for the two who have been my friends since our college days…”
The dilemma Carranza faces is shared by millions of Filipinos who have grown sick and tired of witnessing not just the bratty behavior in the Senate, but the way the country and its people have been failed over and over again by leaders who believe themselves impervious to punishment.
How do we explain to other nationalities why our political system is this way, let alone to ourselves, who have long allowed it to happen?
And what kind of leaders do we have? Many of them bear surnames known by generations, stapled onto sample ballots, force-fed into the consciousness of the masses and wired into gullible brains as the saviors of our time.
Then again, are our voters solely to blame? The system could well have been rigged to benefit ruling families, who are the ones who make the laws, review the laws and revise the laws while the rest of the nation tries to survive.
Watching the events lately in the Upper Chamber, particularly the dance of alliances, has given the people a clear view of siblings in action, and siblings delivering performances worthy of Rotten Tomatoes.
At the root of these power struggles Filipinos have had to endure these past weeks is the issue of graft and corruption, and of human rights violations. This, in fact, is the reason the Executive has given the Anti-Political Dynasty Act the priority it deserves.
The Marcos administration views the measure as a critical governance and anti-corruption reform.
But let us not rejoice just yet. Just because President Bongbong Marcos Jr., a product of a dynastic family himself, supports this bill does not mean the bill itself is foolproof. Perhaps it is entirely “fool-proof.” That is, is it written to make fools out of Filipinos again?
There are questions about its definition of “dynasty,” for one. What the House of Representatives passed on third and final reading is an anti-political dynasty bill that “restricts relatives up to the second degree of consanguinity or affinity from simultaneously holding or running for elective posts in the same jurisdiction.”
In other words, relatives may not run in the same legislative district, partylist, province, city, municipality or barangay — but they can run in other places. By doing so, they can claim compliance with the law, but effectively still hold power within the same family.
It is like the misdirection we keep seeing in our current cabal of leaders who conveniently try to twist the law when the law comes after them.
This early, talk has already begun about who will run in the 2028 elections: the beleaguered vice president against anyone brave enough to challenge her high survey rankings, or the siblings in a snit over who gets to hold power now and forever?