5 ways Philippine dynasties are able to stay in power

Also on Rappler:
8 in every 10 district reps belong to dynasties

The Sanggunian Kabataan (SK) law and Bangsamoro Electoral Code define and prohibit political dynasties. However, these laws only cover the SK and Bangsamoro parliamentary elections.

In national and local elections, clans continue to consolidate political and economic power.

Based on the electoral plans for May 2025 of district representatives belonging to political dynasties, here are five ways they are able to stay in power.

The Constitution allows politicians to hold local office for three consecutive three-year terms or a total of nine uninterrupted years.

In the current 19th Congress, 142 district representatives are reelectionists belonging to political dynasties, PCIJ’s own count shows.

They represent more than half of the 253 district seats.

The entire province of Ilocos Norte is dominated by reelectionist dynasts, with presidential son Ferdinand “Sandro” Marcos (1st District) running for a second term and his uncle Angelo Marcos Barba (2nd District) fighting for a third term.

Since the Marcoses returned to the Philippines in 1991, they have uninterruptedly reigned over Ilocos Norte’s 2nd District. But the 1st District was only recently captured by the clan, in the 2022 elections, ,when Sandro Marcos beat Ria Fariñas, a member of a rival political family.

In Leyte, each of its five congressional districts is held by a different political dynasty member: House Speaker and presidential cousin Ferdinand Martin Romualdez (1st District), Lolita Javier (2nd District), Anna Victoria Veloso-Tuazon (3rd District), Richard Gomez (4th District) and Carl Nicolas Cari (5th District). They all plan to keep their posts. 

Other provinces where all districts are represented by reelectionist dynasts include Misamis Occidental and Misamis Oriental in the Visayas; and Cotabato, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, and Maguindanao del Sur in Mindanao.

Many elected members of political dynasties maximize the three terms.

It is easy for them to get reelected because of the “incumbency advantage,” said political science professor Julio Teehankee.

“If you’re elected, you have all the resources of the state. And