Dynasty, biological son of democracy

By Al S. Mendoza

 

DYNASTY again?

Old hat.

Why we still hear some people blabbing about dynasty makes a lot of us angry, if not endlessly irritated.

Since we won back our democracy after the 1986 Edsa Revolt, dynasties started to crawl back into our political exercises.

We now see the same families love to run for public office: the Aquinos (Cory, Butch, Paul, Noynoy, Bam); Binays (Jojo, Elenita, Junjun, Abby, Nancy); Enriles (Johnny and Jackie); Pimentels (Nene, Koko, Gwen); Estradas (Erap, Jinggoy, JV, Dr. Loi, Guia, etc.); Macapagal-Arroyos (Glo, Mikee, Dado); Revillas (Ramon, Bong, Lani, Jolo, etc.); Pacquiaos (Manny, Jinkee, Bobby, etc.); Lapids (Lito, Mark, etc.);  Villars (Manny, Cynthia, Mark, etc.); and, others too many to mention here.

We practically love hating dynasty every election and yet, it remains unbanned.

They debate in Congress so much about the rules of an anti-dynasty law but in the end, it remains that:  No anti-dynasty law.

Well, if you come down to it, said proposition will not prosper.  Never.

One, it is both anti-congressman and anti-senator.

Aren’t our congressmen and senators tasked to draft and pass laws of the land?

They are no fools as to pick up a stone and use it to smash their head.

To them, perks of a political office are so lucratively enticing that clinging on to a position becomes virtually a must.

And two, dynasty is a biological son of democracy.

It is natural born since democracy almost literally allows dynasty to exist, to live free as a bird.

It tells us, emphatically: If you can read and write, you can become a senator.

Democracy lets the people decide, period.

Manny Pacquiao, boxer, is now a senator.  Lito Lapid, actor, will soon return to the Senate.

Voters never gave a hoot about their scant schooling.

Voters are also practically blind to dynasty; to them, dynasty is as Greek as the Uber is to a camote-digger from Barangay Buwaya near Urbiztondo, hometown of Leila’s paramour.

It is said that when you apply for a job, it is not a matter of what you know but whom you know.

Come election, it is not about dynasty but destiny.

Some families are destined to rule their political territories, as the dynasties did in olden China.

Alas, we’ve been using the word dynasty in a wrong way.

In China’s history, dynasty is a rule by succession through mostly bloodlines.

Seemingly, dynasty in our landscape is a political system that allows the election by the people of one candidate from the same family time and time again.

Since we still don’t have an anti-dynasty law, we must learn to live with that.

Now, were the father-and-son Bushes then that became presidents in the US also guilty of dynasty?

Better vote for that camote-digger and next learn the art of farting—fast, loud and clear.

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