Rep. Defensor: Three-year terms breed ‘fat,’ corrupt dynasties

The three-year terms for public officials at the local level help breed "fat" and eventual corrupt political dynasties, Iloilo Representative Lorenz Defensor said.

Defensor made the position in response to a petition filed by a coalition of groups before the Supreme Court asking the High Court to compel Congress to pass an anti-political dynasty law as provided for under the 1987 Constitution.

“Fat dynasties are always bad, so what is a fat dynasty? Fat dynasty is when Person A, his wife, children, cousin, siblings....this is partly because of the term limits. When someone’s term ends, he will select someone from his family and after that, that member of the family will stay on [for another public office position],” Defensor said in an online press conference.

“You compare it with mature democracies when it is just one member of the family [who is into politics.] [Former US President] Joe Biden for example, did not have a term limit, so he has been reelected over and over in his Senate seat [before he became Vice President and eventually, President]. So we have to strike the perfect balance between term limits and political dynasties. I don’t know the right balance as of the moment, but I honestly think that the term limits have contributed to the expanding political dynasties in the Philippines,” he added.

While Article 2, Section 26 of the Constitution provides that “the state shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by law," Defensor said the same charter does not explicitly prohibit a person from running for public office on the basis of whether they have family members in office as well.

”Unless and until [there is] a clear definition of what a dynasty is, it will be very hard for us to exercise our democratic process. We don't just say na dahil kapatid ka ng senador o pamangkin ka ng governor o magkapatid kayong nasa politika [because you're a senator's sibling or a governor's niece or nephew or you're siblings in politics], it's automatically a dynasty. We should have a reasonable definition so as not also to infringe the rights of individuals to enter public service,” Defensor, a lawyer, said.

Under the 1987 Constitution, the term limit for public officials elected at the local level is three years per term, with eligibility for reelection for two successive terms or a total of nine years in the same elective post.

“When you look at the qualifications stated in our Constitution, there’s age qualification, residency qualification, [but] there is no disqualification [stating] that they should not be a member of a political dynasty,” Defensor, son of the former Iloilo governor Arthur Defensor, Sr. and brother of incumbent Iloilo governor Arthur Defensor, Jr., said.

“What if in a certain province, there are four members of a family who are into politics, and they are not corrupt, and that province is thriving under them? While we are against political dynasties, it's also hard to disqualify someone simply because he is related to a senator or he is related to the mayor or to the congressman.  That is really a dilemma in passing that anti-political dynasty bill,” he added.

Thin vs. fat dynasty

Defensor said that a political dynasty must be defined first, asserting that a member of the family being a public official for three terms and being succeeded by a family member is not necessarily a dynasty, provided that the public official who already served three consecutive three-year terms won’t run for another position in the public office once his or her term expires.

“We have to distinguish between a 'thin' or vertical dynasty where there is succession and only one member of the family occupies an elective office, and a 'fat' dynasty where everyone in the family, everyone in the relations within that clan, are in politics. And worse, if they are corrupt, the political dynasty really becomes destructive,” Defensor said.

"It's not the name of a family but it's the corruption and it's the abuse that comes with the name that falls under a dynasty that we need to talk about,” he added.

Ultimately, Defensor said it remains to be the call of the voters.

“You always have to bring it back to the constituency, kapag binoboto sila [when they vote for the candidates]. Ang hirap pigilan kapag binoboto ng tao eh.

(It would be so hard to impose restrictions if the people are voting for them.)

“I have to study what is the perfect balance for defining an anti-dynasty to prohibit it and what will not infringe the right of every Filipino to run for public office,” Defensor said.

Having said that, Defensor said the Supreme Court is unlikely to compel Congress to pass a legislation, which is the main purview of Congress.

“I don’t think the Supreme Court will act or issue a mandamus against Congress to compel it because this is purely a political question whether the members of Congress are willing to pass a bill. It's not for the Supreme Court to compel,” Defensor said.

“While the Constitution says that there is a prohibition against the dynasty under a bill passed by Congress, it does not state a timeline when Congress will pass it. So it's up to the wisdom of the members of the House and the Senate if and when they will pass an anti-dynasty bill and how they will define a political dynasty,” Defensor added. — BM, GMA Integrated News

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