POLITICAL DYNASTY'S DEFINITION IS LIKE THAT OF NEPOTISM

POLITICAL DYNASTY'S DEFINITION 

IS LIKE THAT OF NEPOTISM

By BERTENI "TOTO" CATALUÑA CAUSING
Author of the book entitled "Simplified Libel Law in the Philippines"

The wisdom behind prohibition against NEPOTISM is substantially the same as POLITICAL DYNASTY.

Under the present laws, it is prohibited for any appointing authority to appoint a relative to the fourth degree of affinity or consanguinity. One reason here is the law avoids the possibility--to repeat, mere possibility--that the appointing power and his appointees will raid and abuse the office where they serve.

Please take note that one thing in common between the law against nepotism and the Constitutional declaration against political dynasty is that both seek to avoid only the "possibility" and not the actual happening of a possibility.

Another thing that is common between the two is that not all persons involved in nepotism or political dynasty are bad.

But again, even if there are good nepotism appointments, as there are good political dynasties, too, the law and the constitution prohibit nepotism nevertheless.

If nepotism is defined as an act of tending to collect, concentrate and perpetuate powers in the clan concerned, so is political dynasty.

The only difference between nepotism and political dynasty is in the manner of getting the office: in Nepotism it is through appointment while in Political Dynasty it is through election.

Those who are for allowance of political dynasties may argue that we have to respect the voice of the people, too, who voted relatives to virtually all powerful offices or to one high office in perpetuity.

However, the argument that the voice of the people is the voice of God so that it must be respected is true only if there is that REAL and GENUINE election.

In our country, there is no such a thing as GENUINE ELECTION.

This is because of the fact that MAJORITY OF THE VOTERS HAVE NO GENUINE FREE CHOICE AND FREE WILL TO CHOOSE.

This lack of genuine freedom to vote is due to the fact that majority of the voters are either easily bought in local elections where it is already a tradition that only those who can buy votes can win or easily swayed when there is a sustained expensive national campaign advertisements that only those national candidates who have plenty of money can mount and maintain. 

When added with a name to boot, a candidate would have a bigger edge as in JV EJERCITO who suffixed his name with "ESTRADA" and BAM AQUINO, as in Nancy Binay, Alan Peter Cayetano, Sonny Angara, Jackie Enrile, Cynthia Villar, Dick Gordon and many others..