The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Tracy Cabrera
Despite facing technical hiccups in the online absentee voting system and multiple disqualification petitions, around 68 million registered voters are expected to cast their ballots today, May 12, for the 2025 national and local elections.
The high-stakes political exercise will fill more than 18,000 elective positions across the country—including 12 seats in the Senate, 254 for district representatives, 63 for party-list groups, and thousands more for provincial and local posts. Parliamentary seats in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao are also up for grabs.
Among the electorate is Heidi Pardilla, a 45-year-old single mother from Caloocan, who has grown disillusioned with the dominance of entrenched political families in every election cycle.
“Politicians these days have become incredibly shameless,” she told The Market Monitor. “It’s as if politics has become their business, one that they fully own.”
For decades, elections in the Philippines have been dominated by dynastic clans and showbiz personalities, a pattern that political analysts say now mirrors a proxy war between the Marcos and Duterte camps.
A political science professor from San Beda University observed that the rise of political dynasties became more pronounced in the last decade, with their presence expanding in the House of Representatives, the Senate, and local governments.
University of the Philippines professor Maria Ela Atienza pointed out in a Viber message that such political families have been around since before martial law in the 1970s but proliferated rapidly after the 1986 ouster of the late president Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
“Many dynasties have no more shame in running for multiple positions, with ‘fat’ dynasties increasing,” Atienza emphasized.
Political families continue to treat public office like private property—heirlooms to be passed on to children and grandchildren—often sparking intra-family rivalries over positions.
A report from the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism noted that roughly two dozen dynastic clans are seeking five or more elective positions each in this year’s midterm elections.
De La Salle University professor Julio Teehankee classified political dynasties into three types based on the extent of their reach and power.
“Political dynasties in the Philippines can be distinguished between ‘thin’ dynasties, where only one family member occupies an elective position successively, and ‘fat’ dynasties, where many family members simultaneously occupy elective positions,” he explained via Messenger.
“If more than four or five family members occupy elective positions, they may already be considered ‘obese,’” he added. “Obese dynasties are dangerous to the health of democracy.”
Analysts argue that these families are mainly focused on preserving regional power bases to steer policies in favor of their business interests. They wield influence to secure legislation, block competition, and corner government contracts.
A 2022 study by Ateneo de Manila University found that over 60 political dynasties maintain links to construction firms.
“The presence of ‘fat’ dynasties and politicians’ ownership of local businesses are both directly linked to poverty incidence,” the study noted. “The monopolization of key industries can skew local policies and economic gains to local politicians and their clients rather than the entire province.”
The construction sector is particularly attractive to politicians because of its profitability and central role in infrastructure development, which also gives them leverage over national development planning.
These vested interests, according to observers, have led to a distortion of public spending priorities and a governance culture that sustains patron-client relationships rather than long-term, inclusive progress.
Still, some believe reforms are possible. Legal experts point to a provision in the 2016 Sangguniang Kabataan Reform Act which could provide grounds for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to disqualify dynastic candidates, even without a dedicated anti-dynasty law.
Michael Henry Yusingco, a senior research fellow at the Ateneo Policy Center, cited Article II, Section 26 of the Constitution and Section 10 of the youth council law as potential legal bases for action.
“The 1987 Constitution prohibits dynasties, but an enabling law has not been passed for 37 years,” Yusingco explained. “The law bars candidates who have relatives who are incumbent officials from the national down to the village level from running in youth council elections.”
However, the Comelec has yet to decide whether that law can be applied to broader electoral positions.