Political Children Want To Move Away From Parents’ Shadow

Political Children Want To Move

 Away From Parents’ Shadow

By Alex P. Vidal

Daughters and sons of prominent political figures who will be running for public office are under pressure to prove they deserve to be elected into public office on their own merits, competence and qualifications, not because they are offsprings of political figures with name recall advantages. (They must consider this before filing their Certificates of Candidacy this forthcoming October 2015 for the May 2016 election)

These children of political behemoths want to paddle their own canoes and establish their own standards and styles of governance. They want to prove that on their own, that they can institute social and political reforms and accelerate the standards of public service to the higher level sans the spoon-feeding support from their more experienced parents.

Many of them will vie for local and national positions. They are determined to follow the footsteps of their parents and continue the family legacy in politics. Some of them are in politics either because they have been inspired and motivated by the quality of leadership instituted by their parents or because of the volition of their parents who don’t want certain positions be transfered to other political dynasties in their cities, provinces and municipalities.

VACATE

Some of these political parents are aware that if they vacate the positions and allow other families or political rivals to occupy or “borrow” them for the next three or six years, their chances of regaining back the positions are nil. In our society, once certain political families have tasted power, it’s hard to live without it; and some dominant political families will move heaven and earth to retain the power by hook or by crook.

In the absence of qualified children, some politicians tap their wives or husband or even brothers and sisters. The objective is to keep certain positions for other members of the household to occupy and turn them over to the next members of the families after another term of office has expired. And so on and so forth. The primary goal actually is to build a political empire to be ruled by members of the dynasty for generation.

DOMINANCE

The political dominance of certain families is actually against the constitution. In the 1987 Constitution, Section 26, Article II, provides that the State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined law.

The reality shows that politics in the Philippines have been under the control of a few notable families and several attempts by serious lawmakers to file the anti-dynasty law have proven to be unsuccessful due to lack of interest and support from the lawmakers themselves who are also interested to perpetuate their families in power. (Do we have political dynasties in Aklan?) /MP