In preparation for the 2025 elections, democratic organizations and parties have initiated separate campaigns against political dynasties, and against corrupt and violent elections. These aim to mobilize the broadest number of people to vigilantly protect their right to vote.

Pledge against dynasties

On October 14,senatorial candidates and party representatives under the Makabayan Coalition signed a pledge against Philippine political dynasties, which represent the worst bureaucrat capitalist, landlord, and warlord interests in the country. They staged a symbolic signing in Quezon City.

Makabayan expressed serious concern over the prevalence of political dynasties in the 2025 elections. “Families, siblings, parents, entire clans, are competing for elective positions and to concentrate power in the hands of a few families,” it said. These dynasties are undermining the participation and election of ordinary citizens.

A study by professors from the Ateneo School of Government in 2019 found that the percentage of “fat” dynasties, or those with multiple family members in power, increased from 19% in 1977 to 29% in 2017. The study said that in 2001, there were 1,303 political families with two members in power, 257 with three members, and 157 with four or more. This further increased in 2019 to 1,548 with two members, 339 with three, and 217 with four or more.

Dynasties have also corrupted the party-list system, which was established by the reactionary constitution to give space to marginalized sectors. A study by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism in May 2022 found that at least 70 of the 177 party-list groups that participated in the previous election had nominees linked to dynasties and political families.

Currently, at least 11 members of the Marcos-Romualdez family are in power. No fewer than four are from the Duterte dynasty. In the Senate, six of the 24 seats are held by politicians from three “fat” dynasties.

In the upcoming 2025 elections, if the political dynasties succeed, they will occupy nine of the 24 Senate seats (more than a third). Among those who may take office are three Tulfos, two Villars, two Cayetanos, and the two Estrada/Ejercito.

Makabayan opposes this practice. The concentration of power in the hands of a few fosters corruption, it said. The musical chairs game among family members in power serves their narrow interests. “Public service is not a family business,” it said.

Corrupt and violent elections

Kontra Daya, on the other hand, is strengthening efforts for a clean, peaceful, and democratic election amid a corrupt, violent, and elite-controlled election system and fraud in machine-based voting. On September 30, its members marched in Intramuros, Manila after holding an assembly.

Kontra Daya is pushing for the abolition of the current automated election system and replacing it with a hybrid system to allow guarding of vote counting. It believes collective action by Filipinos can lead to meaningful change.

The group has long expressed skepticism about the Miru Systems Co. Ltd., which won the contract for electronic voting machines. Miru Systems is notorious for widespread election fraud and failures in Iraq, Congo, and Argentina. In Congo alone, up to 65% of its machines reportedly failed on election day. Kontra Daya said it is likely that a similar situation will happen in the Philippines.

The biggest problem is still the lack of transparency in vote counting, which will be conducted exclusively by machines rather than by people, according to the group. It vows to expose and challenge the current corrupt election system. Voting is a basic human right and the state should heed the voice of the people, the group said.