Editorial: Penalizing political turncoats

Deeply entrenched in Philippine political life are political dynasties. Each province, each city, each municipality has a family that dominates the political setting or two sets of opposing families vying for power.The other common feature in the Philippine political setting is the practice of turncoatism after elections. Filipinos saw this after the elections of President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016 and President Benigno Aquino III in 2010: Several politicians jumped to Duterte’s PDP-Laban and Aquino’s Liberal Party, making the two presidents’ respective parties dominant forces during their terms. After they stepped down from Malacañang, their parties became dwarves.Several lawmakers have filed bills to penalize turncoatism, among them then senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Franklin Drilon. But none of their bills became law.Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who’s now a senior deputy speaker of the House, filed on June 30, 2022, House Bill (HB) 488 or the Political Party Development Act of 2022, aiming to restrict and penalize turncoatism and reform political parties.Section 13 of Arroyo’s proposed law states that politicians who change their party affiliation one year before and one year after any elections would have forfeited the elective position they are running for or the post they have been elected for.These are the penalties for a political turncoat: Disqualification from running for any elective position in the next succeeding election immediately following the act of changing political party affiliation; disqualification from being appointed or from holding any position in any public or government office for three years after the expiration of the current term/office; disqualification from assuming any executive or administrative position in the new political party; and refund of any and all amounts received from one’s former political party, plus a 25 percent surcharge thereon.It is doubtful if Arroyo’s bill will get the nod of her fellow lawmakers who mostly, if not all, have changed political parties in the course of their careers. In her long political career, the 75-year-old daughter of the late President Diosdado Macapagal has changed affiliations and forged alliances with other parties, too.The provision in the 1987 Constitution banning political dynasties has not been enforced because it still needs an enabling law, and not a bill has been passed. The reason is clear as day: the Philippine Congress is dominated by members of political clans.So it is highly unlikely that lawmakers, some of whom—if not all—have been turncoats, would pass HB 488, which they can view as a piece of joke. Granting Arroyo’s bill becomes law, a politician can still sneak around it: by changing parties two years before or after elections.Dynasties and turncoatism show the immaturity of Philippine politics. Politically mature Filipinos could only wonder if they could see a seismic change in local and national politics in their lifetime.