The Tamesis
June 4, 2026
Manila – The House of Representatives passed a bill on third and final reading Wednesday that would ban second-degree relatives from holding public office simultaneously, taking the proposal further than any similar effort since the 1987 Constitution banned political dynasties.
With 267 MPs voting in favor, 20 against and 7 abstaining, the House of Commons approved Bill 8389, which prohibits spouses and relatives with secondary consanguinity and consanguinity from holding elected positions at the same time and called for the expansion of the scope of elections.
“We now call on our colleagues in the Senate to swiftly approve this important measure,” Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiang said in a statement after the vote. READ: Anti-dynasty bill advances on second reading in House of Representatives
The 1987 constitution prohibits political dynasties but requires an enabling law to take effect. The Senate counterpart is awaiting second reading.
The bill, led by Speaker Faustino “Boje” Day III and Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos III, both from the political spectrum, defines dynasty as the “concentration, consolidation, or dominance of elected political power” by a few families.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has made curbing political dynasties a priority of his administration and made it a pillar of his governance reform agenda, which he launched after a multibillion-peso corruption scandal engulfed his administration.
The bill requires political candidates to submit a sworn affidavit stating that they have no relatives seeking elective office that would create “any prohibited dynastic relationship” after submitting proof of candidacy.
The bill adds that candidates must also notify the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) immediately upon learning of any relative who is also running for office.
Under HB 8389, if a relative runs for and wins a seat at the same political level (such as the Senate), the candidate with the highest number of votes gets the seat.
Relatives at different levels of the same political unit are held by elected candidates for superior positions.
First- and second-degree blood relations and marriage relations refer to the family relationship between a person and his or her parents, children, brothers and sisters, grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, half-brothers and sisters, and spouse.
Congress has long been pushing for an anti-dynasty bill but has been repeatedly frustrated by a lack of support in the legislative body dominated by political families.
The last time the House took such a measure was more than a decade ago during the 16th Congress.
According to the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, eight out of 10 members of Congress are from dynasties.
Public offices in the Philippines are often considered heirlooms, passed down from one family to the next. /apl
