LOCAL POLITICAL families, not political parties, are important to national politicians as they mobilize electoral support, says political scientist Julio C. Teehankee. National officials, he explains, typically have strong provincial base. They draw on support from well-entrenched networks of local political families, who often change party affiliations to secure state resources and patronage.

THROUGHOUT THE 24 years of elections in the Philippines’s 20 provinces with the most number of registered voters, family names on the ballots seem to keep repeating themselves, the same ones popping up over and over again. It’s a situation that goes against the equal access to opportunities for public service guaranteed by the 1987 Constitution. Then again, the Charter also talks about prohibiting political dynasties “as may be defined by law,” but just look where we are now.

THEY ARE MULTIMILLIONAIRES, affluent and ambitious to the last.

On Monday, May 9, Filipinos will get to pick one among them to be president, and another to be vice president, of the nation.

JEJOMAR ‘JOJO’ BINAY marked his Year 1 in public office as OIC (officer-in-charge) mayor of the country’s premier financial district, Makati City, in 1989 with a net worth of only P2.9 million.