MUCH ADO accompanied the decision of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to make a run for the second congressional district seat of Pampanga.
Petitions were even filed before various electoral and legal fora for her disqualification.
With her victory all but officially affirmed by the Commission on Elections, with her sons and in-laws too winning in their respective quests for congressional seats, a greater ado is now being raised on the grand probability of the lower chamber in the next Congress becoming a “House of Arroyos.”
So there shall be: Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from Pampanga, Rep. Diosdado Arroyo from Camarines Sur, Rep. Ignacio Arroyo, from Negros Occidental, Rep. Ma. Lourdes Arroyo of the party-list group Kasangga, and Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo of Ang Galing ng Pinoy party list.
So what else is new? Of clans and families inhabiting the legislative bodies, their seats nothing more than family heirloom pass on from one generation to the next?
Easily come to mind now the Garcias of Cebu, the Plazas of Agusan, the Barbers of Surigao, the Villafuertes of Camarines Sur.
Why, even the Senate, with but 24 seats have at one time or the other harbored close kin together: Ramon Revilla, Sr. and son-in-law Robert Jaworski, passing on the torch to Ramon Revilla, Jr.; mother and son Loi and Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada; siblings Allan Peter and Pia Cayetano.
Then there is Sen. Nene Pimental whose daughter is aspiring for the Senate, and Sen. Rodolfo Biazon whose son Rufino, a congressman, is also running for senator.
It is even worse in the local government units. Witness the many positions in Maguindanao – from governor to vice mayor and board members, mayor to vice mayor to councilors and barangay chairmen peopled by Ampatuans.
See the common surnames in the party slates, opposing or otherwise, of local candidates: two Nepomucenos and three Pamintuans in Angeles City, two Moraleses in Mabalacat, a slew of Bustoses and Lacaps in Masantol, Floreses in Macabebe, Masantol and Minalin, Pinedas in Lubao and Sta. Rita, Davids in Porac.
Indeed, what else is new?
Elections in this country, where positions are concerned, are a family affair. To reiterate, the posts reduced to inheritance for keeping and passing on from one generation to the next – exclusively within the family.
To assail the Arroyos now for getting a greater share of the House seats than any other family is not only “unfair,” as administration factotum Ricardo Saludo deplored. It is plain envy.
Inggit lang tayo.
Petitions were even filed before various electoral and legal fora for her disqualification.
With her victory all but officially affirmed by the Commission on Elections, with her sons and in-laws too winning in their respective quests for congressional seats, a greater ado is now being raised on the grand probability of the lower chamber in the next Congress becoming a “House of Arroyos.”
So there shall be: Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from Pampanga, Rep. Diosdado Arroyo from Camarines Sur, Rep. Ignacio Arroyo, from Negros Occidental, Rep. Ma. Lourdes Arroyo of the party-list group Kasangga, and Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo of Ang Galing ng Pinoy party list.
So what else is new? Of clans and families inhabiting the legislative bodies, their seats nothing more than family heirloom pass on from one generation to the next?
Easily come to mind now the Garcias of Cebu, the Plazas of Agusan, the Barbers of Surigao, the Villafuertes of Camarines Sur.
Why, even the Senate, with but 24 seats have at one time or the other harbored close kin together: Ramon Revilla, Sr. and son-in-law Robert Jaworski, passing on the torch to Ramon Revilla, Jr.; mother and son Loi and Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada; siblings Allan Peter and Pia Cayetano.
Then there is Sen. Nene Pimental whose daughter is aspiring for the Senate, and Sen. Rodolfo Biazon whose son Rufino, a congressman, is also running for senator.
It is even worse in the local government units. Witness the many positions in Maguindanao – from governor to vice mayor and board members, mayor to vice mayor to councilors and barangay chairmen peopled by Ampatuans.
See the common surnames in the party slates, opposing or otherwise, of local candidates: two Nepomucenos and three Pamintuans in Angeles City, two Moraleses in Mabalacat, a slew of Bustoses and Lacaps in Masantol, Floreses in Macabebe, Masantol and Minalin, Pinedas in Lubao and Sta. Rita, Davids in Porac.
Indeed, what else is new?
Elections in this country, where positions are concerned, are a family affair. To reiterate, the posts reduced to inheritance for keeping and passing on from one generation to the next – exclusively within the family.
To assail the Arroyos now for getting a greater share of the House seats than any other family is not only “unfair,” as administration factotum Ricardo Saludo deplored. It is plain envy.
Inggit lang tayo.
