Same family names shape 2025 party-list race

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A troubling pattern continues to emerge in the 2025 elections as families dominate the party-list race for a spot in the House of Representatives. 

An analysis of at least 1,600 names from the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) official list of party-list nominees reveals a strong pattern of familial ties within individual party-list groups. 

At least 93 of the 155 party-list groups running  — or about 60% — have two or more nominees who share either a surname or a middle name, which suggests possible family relationships among their own nominees. At least four groups have married couples among their official nominees.

Party-list groups aiming to join the House of Representatives are required to submit 10 nominees to the Comelec as part of their candidacy filing. But the most that a winning group can get is three slots, which usually goes for the party-list group with the highest percentage of votes. Meanwhile, each group is assured of one seat in the House for every 2% of the total votes it gets. 

At least 19 party-list groups have more than five nominees sharing the same middle or last name. Topping the list are Pilipinas Babangon Muli (PBBM) and Anti-Crime and Terrorism Community Involvement and Support, Inc. (ACT-CIS), each with nine nominees falling under this category.

The Comelec’s 2nd Division canceled the registration of PBBM after it found that none of its 10 nominees were from Calabarzon, the area it claimed to represent as a regional political party. The group can still file a motion for reconsideration.

While it’s not unusual for unrelated individuals to share the same surname, particularly in a country like the Philippines where colonial history has shaped naming conventions, this is not the case when those names appear together on the same nominee list for a single party-list group. 

Shared middle names within this context often indicate a common maternal lineage, while identical surnames almost always suggest being an immediate relative — sibling or parent-child relationship, for example. These naming overlaps raise important questions about a system that has already been abused for so long.

Same surnames, different party-list groups

An analysis of nominees across party-list groups in the 2025 elections reveals a recurring pattern in the use of surnames and middle names. The names “Garcia,” “Santos,” and “Tan” are the top family names that repeatedly appear across both middle and last name entries in multiple groups. 

The overlap in the most common family names could be attributed to the country’s colonial history, but it can also point to the blurring lines between genuine representation and traditional electoral politics. 

Some nominees from different party-list groups are closely related, placing them under the “fat” category of political dynasties, or where family members simultaneously hold multiple elective positions. “Thin” dynasties, on the other hand, are when relatives are elected one after another.

An example of a rising “fat” dynasty are the Tulfos. Three appeared in two party-list groups running for the 2025 elections.

Jocelyn Pua Tulfo, a reelectionist, is the first nominee of the Anti-Crime and Terrorism Community Involvement and Support, Inc. (ACT-CIS), the party-list group that secured the highest number of votes in both the 2019 and 2022 elections. She is also the wife of Senator Raffy Tulfo.

Her sister-in-law, former tourism secretary Wanda Tulfo Teo, is the first nominee of Turismo Isulong Mo (TURISMO). Wanda’s son Robert Tulfo Teo is the group’s third nominee. Wanda was implicated in a P60-million advertisement controversy involving the Department of Tourism, state-run People’s Television Network, and Bitag Media Unlimited, a company owned by her brother Ben.

Aside from the Tulfos, two members of the Pacquiao family are also looking to join the House of Representatives through the party-list system.

Jinkee Pacquiao, former Sarangani vice governor and wife of former senator Manny Pacquiao, is the second nominee of Maharlikang Pilipino sa Bagong Lipunan (MPBL). This newly-created group, during the COC filing in October 2024, promised to help empower Filipino athletes if elected. Its first nominee is former PDP-Laban spokesperson Ron Munsayac. 

Manny’s younger brother and Jinkee’s brother-in-law, Alfredo “Bobby” Pacquiao, meanwhile, is the second nominee of 1-PACMAN, which already has one representation in Congress through Michael Romero. Bobby, however, is no stranger to the House of Representatives as he already served as OFW Family Club party-list representative from 2019 to 2022.

Romero’s daughter Mikaela is the first nominee of 1-PACMAN. His half-brother, Reghis Romero IV, is the first nominee of Gilas Party-list. They share the same father, construction magnate Reghis Romero II.

Connecting 2 chambers of Congress

The party-list system is also the route-of-choice of families wanting to have a presence in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The two Pacquiaos — Jinkee of MPBL and Bobby of 1-PACMAN — are aiming to be the House counterpart of Manny Pacquiao, who is running for senator. The former boxer served as representative of Sarangani province before becoming a senator from 2016 to 2022. He ran for president in 2022, but lost. 

The Tulfo family continues to strengthen its significant presence in the Philippine legislature, extending beyond sisters-in-law Jocelyn of ACT-CIS and Wanda of TURISMO, and Robert, also of TURISMO.

Two other Tulfos — incumbent ACT-CIS Representative Erwin Tulfo and broadcaster Ben Tulfo — are considered frontrunners for Senate seats. They are expected to join their brother and Jocelyn’s husband Raffy Tulfo, who is serving as senator until 2028. An addition to the family’s political clout is Raffy and Jocelyn’s son, Ralph Tulfo, who is seeking reelection as Quezon City 2nd District representative.

This means that there would be seven Tulfos in the 20th Congress if they all win in the May 12 elections. 

Ma. Presentacion “Precy” Vitug Ejercito, first nominee of Balikatan of Filipino Families (BFF), is the wife of incumbent Senator Jinggoy Ejercito whose term will not expire until 2028. His son, Joseph Luis Manuel Vitug Ejercito, is the group’s third nominee.

House Speaker and presidential cousin Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, who is a reelectionist of Leyte’s 1st District, is also aiming to strengthen his family’s political clout through the party-list race. 

His son Andrew Julian Romualdez is the first nominee of Tingog Sinirangan. His wife, incumbent representative Yedda Marie, is named as the group’s seventh nominee, while Yedda’s sister, Marie Josephine Diana Calatrava, is the third nominee. 

The Romualdez family members will likely join forces with presidential son and Ilocos Norte 1st District Representative Sandro Marcos, who is running for reelection. Another Marcos cousin, Angelo Marcos Barba, is an unopposed reelectionist congressman of the province’s second district.

It’s important to note that the Marcos family is not without internal rifts. The most visible of these is the ongoing tension between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (and First Lady Liza Marcos) and his sister, Senator Imee Marcos. This discord became apparent when Imee, a reelectionist senator, withdrew from her younger brother’s Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas slate just days after he omitted her name from a campaign sortie in Cavite.

Graduating senator Grace Poe, meanwhile, is banking on her husband and son to continue her family’s legislative presence through the party-list system. Her son, Bryan Poe Llamanzares, is the first nominee of FPJ Panday Bayanihan, while her husband Teodoro Misael Daniel “Neil” Llamanzares is the fourth nominee. 

The culprit?

Political dynasties exploiting the party-list system to entrench themselves is a persistent reality in Philippine politics. This is the existing reality even if the 1987 Philippine Constitution is very clear: “The State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by law.” 

The problem lies in the lack of a law prohibiting political dynasties. There have been efforts to file anti-dynasty laws, but none has gained momentum in recent years. Any proposed bill, after all, would have to go through the legislative process, which also involves members of political dynasties and clans. 

But there are groups that have gone to the Supreme Court to seek help in compelling Congress to pass a law. On March 31, 2025, former Supreme Court justices Antonio Carpio and Conchita Carpio-Morales, along with former Comelec chair and Constitution framer Christian Monsod, filed a petition arguing that Congress is in violation of the Constitution by failing to enact an anti-dynasty law. This is the latest in a series of petitions dating back to 2012.

Political analyst Arjan Aguirre, an assistant professor of political science at the Ateneo de Manila University, highlights the weak institutionalization of political parties as a critical factor behind the dominance of the same families. 

“[The lack of] strong and working parties out there to regularly compete for seats in the party-list system will only leave the dynasties as the lone political actor who’ll dominate the Philippine political system in the decades to come [since] they have the money, political network, patronage relations, and clientelistics tendencies to mobilize votes during elections,” he told Rappler on Tuesday, May 6.

An act that would institutionalize party-list groups and political parties can help groups without resources to work and function as a “real organization that can effectively recruit people to participate in the government,” among others. It can provide the necessary resources for parties to function, the responsibility or duty to work with the people, and the accountability in realizing their programs and platforms.

“Passing a party development act should help make party-building easier [and] party development or growth more achievable and party stabilization possible,” Aguirre said.

There have been efforts to fix this issue by making political parties and groups more formal in their setup, but Aguirre said that they hardly ever gain significant progress in Congress.

“They are comfortable in a traditional way of campaigning and running the government,” he said in Filipino. “The idea of functioning parties is very alien to them.” 

The implications of the same surnames dominating party-list nominations, and possibly the legislature if they win, are far-reaching. This can undermine efforts to democratize representation, especially for sectors that are hardly prioritized in the political arena. The public also risks voting for people who will continue the very inequalities they are supposed to address. This is made possible by the lack of safeguards against political dynasties. 

So until we see a robust enforcement of the constitutional provision prohibiting political dynasties, Filipinos may have to continue having to deal with the party-list system as another vehicle for traditional politicians to sustain power one surname at a time. – Rappler.com