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MANILA, Philippines — Four former Supreme Court justices – two of them retired chief justices – have been invited by a panel of the House of Representatives that will deliberate on Malacañang-backed efforts to ban political dynasties in the country.
Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, chairman of the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms, said they invited the retired justices to today’s hearing on the 20 measures filed for the Anti-Political Dynasty bill, where they will start committee deliberations.
Among those invited were retired chief justices Reynato Puno, a highly respected constitutionalist and Artemio Panganiban as well as former associate justices Adolf Azcuna and Antonio Carpio.
Puno, who was practically a jurist in his entire legal career, sits as chairman of the Philippine Constitution Association.
Other key experts invited include Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia, 1986 Constitutional Commission commissioners Christian Monsod and Wilfrido Villacorta, Philippine Bar Association president Joseph Manolo Rebano and Integrated Bar of the Philippines president Allan Panolong.
According to Adiong, the hearing will also feature deans from leading law schools and prominent academics and civil society representatives.
“As chairman, I am fully committed to ensuring that the committee’s deliberations produce a version of the Anti-Political Dynasty Bill that is effective, legally sound and constitutionally compliant,” he said.
“We will harness the collective wisdom of our distinguished resource persons to craft a measure that genuinely promotes equitable political participation, upholds meritocracy and strengthens Philippine democracy,” Adiong said.
“The Jan. 27 hearing represents a pivotal moment in the long-standing effort to implement Article II, Section 26 of the 1987 Constitution and address one of the most enduring calls for political reform in the country,” he said.
Akbayan party-list Rep. Perci Cendaña, one of the 20 authors, is optimistic about the chances of the bill being approved by both House and Senate, and eventually signed into law by President Marcos, who openly declared support for the move.
“At this juncture, there is growing public groundswell to finally legislate the Constitution’s mandate on Congress to ban political dynasties,” Cendaña said. “There’s a change in the air. Before, we accepted political dynasties as part of reality. It’s different now. Likely because of the constant exposés on corruption, the public is seeing the common thread tying all of these scandals and corruption (is) political dynasties.”
“Political dynasties are the common denominator of Philippine corruption,” he said.
Akbayan’s “Comprehensive Anti-Political Dynasty Bill” or House Bill 5905 has been touted by some political reform advocates as among the strongest prohibitions on political dynasties.
In December 2025, Speaker Faustino Dy III and House Majority Leader Sandro Marcos filed House Bill 6771, marking the first major push by top House leaders to operationalize constitutional provisions intended to prohibit political dynasties.
Dy stressed then that the measure seeks to fulfill a constitutional obligation that has remained untouched for nearly four decades, by finally defining “political dynasty” in a way that opens public service to more Filipinos.
In the bill’s explanatory note, Dy and Marcos, who both come from families with a long history of public service, said urgent action is needed to uphold political equality and ensure all citizens can participate fairly in governance.
They anchored the measure on Article II, Section 26 of the Constitution, which mandates that the “State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by law.”
‘Cosmetics’
Election reform specialist and former Comelec commissioner Luie Tito Guia, in an interview with “Storycon” on One News yesterday, said, “Our fear is that if we pass a watered-down anti-dynasty bill, it would probably take another 25 years to pass another law that might actually be effective.”
“After that, it’s done. We would already have a cosmetic anti-dynasty bill,” he added in Filipino.
Guia, a member of non-profit Democratic Insights Group, pushed for the passage of their version of the bill, which includes dynasty prohibitions up to the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity.
He said their proposal, which is said to be almost similar to the one filed by Akbayan, also prohibits successions among family members.
There will also be a limitation to one family member in national and local levels, with the House of Representatives treated as both a national and local post.
Guia said their group is proposing clear guidelines for Comelec to identify which candidate will be allowed to run, in case multiple members of a family file certificates of candidacy.
He expressed opposition to the version filed by Dy and Marcos, which critics described as a watered-down version of the bill.
Under the proposal, members of the same family are prohibited from holding elective posts if these are classified within the same cluster.
The six clusters identified in the bill were: national (president, vice president and senators), House of Representatives (district and party-list), provincial, city, municipal and barangay.
Critics noted that this will still allow – and even legitimize – members of a political dynasty to hold multiple posts at the same time, provided that these are in different clusters.
“If you’re going to pass a law that doesn’t really address the purpose of having a political dynasty law… what might happen is that it could even legitimize it,” Guia said.
Meanwhile, Sen. Risa Hontiveros has been elected chairperson of the committee on electoral reforms, which is expected to tackle proposed measures on political dynasties and reforms to the party-list system. — Neil Jayson Servallos
