IF President Duterte is sincere in his bid to dismantle oligarchy in the country, he should start to pass a genuine anti-political dynasty law.
This was stressed by Dr. Julio Teehankee, professor of political science and international studies and former dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the De La Salle University, in a recent virtual forum organized by Stratbase ADR Institute.
“If you just target one or two families and then you ignore the others, if you don’t consider totally changing what is wrong with the structure and the system, then that is not reform, that is simply partisan politics,” Teehankee said, adding oligarchs exist both in the government and the private sectors.
Teehankee said in targeting oligarchs, the government’s top officials should look no further than Congress where a few families have dominated for a number of years.
“In economics, if ever there is a monopoly or an oligopoly, more often than not, this is considered to be a market failure. The same can be said of our political market… If a handful of families have managed to control all elected and appointed positions, in practically all the local government positions and national [sic], then that is an indication of a political market failure,” he said.
Teehankee said the consolidation of political power in the Philippines has resulted in political dynasties.
“One president’s oligarchy is another president’s crony…This system is perpetuated in collusion with the elite of power or the political class, and in the Philippines, the political class is largely composed of political dynasties,” he said.
