THE Federation of Free Workers (FFW) has called for an end to political dynasties as 2019 elections draw near.
The country’s oldest labor group also backed political reforms proposed by the Consultative Committee (Con-com) and urged candidates to adopt a legislative agenda that will end political dynasties.
“We condemn the bastardization of our republican system of government by dynasties. Husband, wife, sister, daughter or son of the same families running or holding elective offices as members of the House of Representatives [both spouses], senator, mayor, etc., respectively, is no longer a democracy but a government of political dynasties,” the labor group said in a statement.
Moreover, the FFW said there is a need to end the “abhorable practice” by putting flesh and blood to the 1987 constitutional provision banning political dynasties, citing the political reform proposed by the Con-com in the federal charter it submitted to the Congress.
“FFW supports the proposal [of the Con-com], as described by [former Con-com chairman and retired Chief Justice Reynato] Puno,” the statement said.
Under the Con-com’s federal charter, “persons related within the second [or even to the extend of third] civil degree of consanguinity or affinity, as described above, are prohibited from running simultaneously for more than one national and one regional or local position,” including party-list representatives.
The FFW also called on Congress to amend the Party-list System Act to also effect a ban on political dynasties.
“[The] FFW is of the view that concentration of power to a few not only defaces equal access to power but also breeds corruption and maintains the long cycle of poverty in the country,” the statement read.
“Our old political clan leaders cannot solve our problems with the ways and same thinking that they used when they created or aggravated these problems,” FFW President Jose Sonny G. Matula said.
The FFW has 250 collective bargaining agreement in workplaces.