OPINION | Social media sensations threaten political clans in 2025 midterm elections

October 3, 2024 , 08:00 PM

By Manny Mogato

(October 3, 2024) – Families and clans have dominated Philippine politics for over a century, and positions of power and influence are handed down from generation to generation.

For instance, in La Union, the Ortega family had ruled the province and several towns since the turn of the 20th century.

There was only one name—Marcos—that had dominated Ilocos Norte since 1946 when the Philippines was liberated from the Japanese and granted independence by the United States.

The sitting president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., is the only son of the late dictator and his namesake. Her elder sister is an incumbent senator, his son is a congressman, and his nephew is a governor.

The dictator began his political career as a congressman in 1948 and married another political family, the Romualdezes.

Marcos’ first cousin is the leader of the lower house of Congress. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez’s wife is also a congresswoman and a brother of the mayor of Tacloban in Leyte, the family’s political bailiwick.

In other parts of the country, it is the same story. Families control a province, a city, a town, and even the barangays.

The former president, Rodrigo Duterte, was a long-time mayor of Davao City. He was succeeded by his daughter, Sara, who is now the vice president. Two sons are also in local politics as mayor and congressman.

Nearly 70 million eligible voters will vote for more than 18,200 national and local positions next year.

This includes 12 senators, 254 district congressmen, 63 party-list organizations, 82 governors, and more than 1,600 mayors.

Familiar names have dominated these positions. Most have been in power since 1986 when democratic space was restored after a popular uprising called the EDSA People Power revolt.

They include the Binays in Makati and Abaloses in Mandaluyong. In some provinces and cities, families were divided by infighting as siblings and in-laws fought over elective positions.

Political analysts said the political dynasties in the country have grown and expanded from a vertical succession in power to a horizontal one as siblings and parent-children hold the same public office.

Cynthia Villar is a two-term senator, whose son joined him in the 2022 elections. Jinggoy Estrada and his half-brother, JV Ejercito, are both in the Senate, and Alan Peter Cayetano and sister Pia.

In next year’s elections, Sen. Raffy Tulfo would likely be joined by his two brothers: Erwin and Ben.

Raffy’s wife is a party-list congresswoman, his son is a district congressman, and a daughter is running for Congress in another party-list.

Politics in the Philippines is a family business.

However, political families faced a new threat as social media platforms became more popular than traditional and legacy news media.

Two popular vloggers—Rosmar Tan and Mark Gamboa—have decided to join the political circus.

Rosmar, who boasts of more than 20 million followers on Tiktok, filed her certificate of candidacy as a councilor for Manila’s first district.

Gamboa, who has 100,000 social media followers in his political vlogs, wants to run for a Senate seat.

They believe they have enough followers to catapult them to political office. They were following the lead of popular broadcaster Raffy, a social media star with millions of followers on YouTube.

Tulfo won a seat in the Senate in May 2022, placing second to movie star Robin Padilla, a testament to popularity and name recall as ingredients in a successful political campaign.

Padilla was aided by a political organization and the endorsement of a popular leader, Duterte, in the 2022 balloting.

However, another social media sensation, Dr. Willie Ong, failed twice in his bid to become a senator and vice president.

Once in power, these social media sensations could become political dynasties like the Tulfos.

It goes back to families and clans in Philippine politics.

*The views expressed by the columnist do not necessarily reflect that of the media organization.

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