The ugly face of Philippine politics

“These are the same families who belong to the country's economic elite, some of them acting as rule-makers or patrons of politicians who conspire together to amass greater economic power,” the center said in a 2007 study.

Often the families protect their political and economic power at all cost - even resorting to violence against anyone who threatens their position or diminish their influence.

Sometimes, even family members attack each other in their turfs. In 2006, a legislator was assassinated outside a Catholic church in Manila and his cousin, the incumbent governor in their province, was accused of ordering the hit.

While the Philippine constitution prohibits political dynasties, an enabling law that would implement the ban is still pending in Congress, and many of the country's lawmakers oppose it because they too come from political clans.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who herself is a product of an old political clan, as the daughter of late former president Diosdado Macapagal, has criticized the way politics is done in the Philippines.

“Over the years, our political system has degenerated to the extent that it is difficult for anyone to make any headway yet keep his hands clean,” she has said. “Perhaps we have strained the present political system to its final limit.”

Politicians from prominent clans often defend their continued rule, saying they take care of the people in their turfs.

But the Center for People Empowerment said the proliferation of political dynasties in the Philippines only highlights the “semi-feudal condition in the country, where wealth is accumulated and concentrated in a few families.”

“Political dynasties are a product of a society riven by income inequalities and lack of opportunities for the social and economic uplift of the majority of the people,” it added. “The more stagnant a rural society is the more entrenched the powers-that-be are.”

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