Photo credit: COMELEC

With the May 2025 elections fast approaching, the issue of political dynasties in the country remains largely overlooked by many.

As a people, we are either in denial of their existence and the impact they have on our nation’s socio-economic challenges, or we have grown weary of searching for solutions that seem impossible to find.

Through our silence, whether intentional or not, we have become enablers.

We have tolerated the rise of dynastic rule in our country because, politically, we are too uninformed to recognize its detrimental effects on the entire political system.

Perhaps we are too kind or too naive in our approach to the issue, failing to see the damage caused by this system, which is driving the nation to its knees.

Many of us treat politicians with the same surname as products—relying on their names as if they were trusted brands worthy of our seal of approval during elections.

But sustaining this mindset for decades and tolerating this immoral practice has gotten us nowhere as a nation.

In fact, countless academic studies have demonstrated how political dynasties negatively impact our economy, our way of life, and our collective understanding of governance and politics.

Political dynasties have exploited our ignorance.

They have lured voters with money, used their goons to impose their will, and employed deceptive tactics to legitimize their perpetual claims to power and influence.

There was a time when dynasties thrived only at the local level, but today, many politicians vying for national office come from dynastic families.

For these politicians, elective positions have become like franchises—something to be passed on to a relative.

Elective positions have become the exclusive domain of certain families, passed down from one member to another.

What were once public offices have now become thrones, with dynasties as the heirs.

To dynasties, politics is an enterprise. The more family members in politics, the better it serves their interests.

However, this system, which has existed in the Philippines for generations, is one of the key reasons the country remains in misery.

Governance has ceased to be about the common good. Instead, it has become a source of power and wealth, meant to satiate the insatiable appetites of dynasties.

Today, ruling political clans have become too enterprising.

They are willing to corrupt the sanctity of the electoral process to ensure their relatives remain in power.

If a member of a dynasty is already in office, nothing can stop them from using government resources to secure the election of their kin.

Power, influence, and, to a greater extent, money (not from their own pockets, but from public coffers) are the perfect combination that allows dynasties to thrive with renewed impunity.

Growing up, we were taught that stealing is wrong—that too much greed for power is not only addictive, but also a source of greater evils.

Perpetual rule by a single political clan is neither right nor sustainable in any realistic sense.

When will we realize that for every peso given to us as a form of bribe during elections, crooked politicians earn a thousand times more simply by being elected into office?

Deception takes many forms. And for political dynasties, it begins the moment they eye an elective post.

No political family has a monopoly on genuine intentions. They cannot claim intellectual superiority over others to justify their self-proclaimed “divine right” to political ascendancy.

Either we are too naive in believing this, or dynasties have become so convincing that the lies they peddle over and over suddenly become gospel truths we are forced to swallow.

In May 2025, all of this must stop.

It will happen only if we collectively express our dismay at this systematic abuse by the same people who think our rights are for sale.

Roseten Tugaff

Roseten “Tenten” Tugaff is an experienced journalist with a rich background in reporting. He began his career in the mid-’90s, working with the now-defunct Manila Chronicle and The Manila Times shortly after graduating from college. Throughout his career, he has also held various roles in government. Currently, he is a freelance media relations practitioner and hosts his own online political podcast.