Family Ties and Political Dynasties in the Philippines

Introduction 

This is political dynasty in the Philippines essay in which this topic will be discussed. To start with, Filipinos could sometimes be overwhelming; with their intense and very authentic way of showcasing their deep-rooted relationship to their families as well as having a strong attachment to their chosen field in life, in which some other countries may still take a while to understand. It is no surprise that if we talk about Filipino culture, strong family ties and structure will automatically be the main subject that would be discussed, especially when it comes to them being completely entitled to their profession, power, and way of living. The thing about the Philippines and its people, they tend to focus more on how they will handle family situations, belongings, and even their reputations without having to ruin their bond as a whole. With these claims and by talking about family structures, there are so many ways and situations in which Filipinos have already proven their part as citizens who are deeply oriented in their families, one major example of this is succession. In every family, succession is most of the time present whether they are capable or not, no one can take that away from them for one main reason that with this kind of family exercise, comes a great power and privilege, in a way that it will benefit them in so many aspects, it can be politically, socially and even the economic aspect has something to do with this.

Political

Politicians with the same blood and same family names ruling over certain associated city and provincial areas have been working through years in public and government offices. As an additional information, during the precolonial period in the Philippines, leadership runs in a certain powerful clan underpinned in a social contract, clans who hold their role as the ones who ruled a certain territory enjoyed the advantage of having such social status but at the same time they are expected to hold a responsibility to protect their community, which shows that family dynasties has been a main feature in the field of politics in the Philippines for a very long time. Until today, political dynasty is still a commonality in Philippine politics wherein ones there was an influential leader or politician, then it would be normal for its wife, son or daughter or any member of the family to run also as a government official and thus ended up elected by people.

According to the free dictionary, political dynasty is a succession of rulers from the same family or line. Examples of this, the very famous and evident to the Philippines is, the Marcos’, the Aquino’s, the Binay’s and the last but not the least, the Duterte’s. Ferdinand Marcos became famous as the first president who established an authoritarian government in the Philippines. Cory Aquino became the first president of the Philippines that is a women, and be able to take down Ferdinand Marcos with EDSA people power revolution. Jejomar Binay became the Mayor of the financial center of the Philippines, Makati city, before he became the vice president of the Philippines. Lastly, Rodrigo Roa Duterte as the president of our current administration.

Every election we always see familiar faces and familiar surnames flashing at our television screens, same people, different positions or new personality but same surnames to the old ones who are currently in position. Based on the study from 2007 to 2016, the number of dynastic share or the number of powerful clans per position rose from 75% to 78% among district representatives; from 70% to 81% among governors; form 58% to 70% among mayors.

Economic

Family political dynasties dominate the world of business in the Philippines. The big names of the top business magnates here in the Philippines are the testament for the reality of family controlled businesses. When a family dynasty ceases to be the dominant owner, the business will either close or pass into the hands of another family. Two to three generation is the normal ruling length of a dynasty in business. There are political family businesses that have lasted more than three generations. The longest is the Ayala to Zobel family business which lasted nine generations. There are also other families that are mostly retired from major corporate endeavours, but they remain to be prominent in social or civic circles like the Madrigal, Ynchausti, Yulo and Elizalde families. There are businesses that survived but the ownership passed from one owner to another. For example is the San Miguel Corporation it is passed from the Soriano family to Enrique Zobel to Danding Cojuangco, then it is being back to the Soriano and back to Danding Cojuangco. Also the PLDT group, it also controls SMART, went from the Cojuangco family to its present major stockholder which is Lim Siep family that also controls Indofoods in Indonesia, one of the largest food processing companies in Asia.

Employment dynasty is also present here in Philippines aside from having a business dynasty. Sometimes when you are applying into a company the most prioritized person is the one who have a relative employed in the said company. Just like in political dynasty, the employment dynasty works like if you have a family member in the company or when your family owns the company, sometimes your employees are mostly your relatives. Because here in the Philippines we value the family relationship to the point that we first gave them the things and the opportunities that we have compared to other people.

Research shows that most political family members tend to work in the same company with their other family members, but the conflict of it is that those non-family member workers may have a lower wage and position when it comes to working with the former. The relationship between the family member worker and the non-family member worker will change somehow because of what the other blood relatives shows to them. It will somehow terminate the business relationship between the worker and the family in a non-friendly manner because of the biases that shows off even in requirements, money, and forms. And also it will somehow delay projects and generate poor results.

Social

Social ranking happens not only on the wide scope but also on the smallest part of the community which is the barangays. It occurred long before it was also established. It might not be as big deal as it seems before, but in our society today, social ranking is now very much important because it encompasses dignity and reputation. Social status is definitely can be linked to reputation because a person’s acts are the manifestation of his or her family. A barangay official who is a trustworthy, caring and approachable person will surely gain a public trust which can escalate the reputation that they have and by this, the household of this barangay official will also be known in the eyes of the public even if his/her family members are not aware of who are those people that usually approaches them in the vicinity as they walk casually. Basically, the last name is the basis of it, almost especially if a certain person is related to an official and high social ranking may surely occur because the public have set an expectation in their bloodline that will spark more in terms of their reputation that is also their legacy.

As a religious country, religion and family are two of the most important things for the Filipinos. These are the things that we value as these build up who we are individually and the construct where individuals relate collectively through beliefs and genetics.

However, how does religion, family ties, and dynasties work together? The presence of the dynasty of a family inside an institution like the church makes an impression of legacy. For example; the father is a lay minister, the mother is a lector, the sister is a church youth member and the youngest is an altar server. As, the name of the whole family is being carried by its members therefore the involved persons often have that mentality to have a good performance in order to carry on the legacy. This only proves how intact the idea of family is for the Filipinos. In order to save the clans name, families tend to go an extra mile just to save the reputation. Whether it may be patching things up whenever an issue arises or prioritizing the members whenever an action is need to be done. Dynasties has its positive and negative effects but still the presence of strong family ties in this kind of concept cannot be denied.

Conclusion

Whether we will like it or not, the interconnection of us with our family members will always define ourselves. In the Filipino context of norms and values, kin relationships based on consanguinity and affinity are highly valued since the precolonial period up until today. It would always be invigorated to us that the family where we belong is the very definition of our living, and whether who or how we live our lives also define the blood lineage that we came from. As a result, our deep love and value for our families are the causes which resulted to the rise of family dynasties in political, economic and social aspects of our society.