Project: Palitan Na!

By Michael Henry Yusingco, LL.M

Martial Law nostalgia will inevitably be a painful reality check as well. Decades after deposing a dictator, the same evils still grip the country. Even the names and faces of the villains remain largely the same. The only difference is, today millions more Filipinos bear the yoke of inequality and despair. Sadly, Filipinos also remain content edifying personalities and believing that only heroes can restore good governance. Also, still hopelessly imagining that change can be accomplished in just one go.

The existential dilemma every Filipino must resolve is that corruption is perpetuated by the people we elect. Nearly 80 percent of lawmakers belong to fat political dynasties.   And they form the backbone of the pork barrel cartel that has been raiding the treasury for years. Thus, electing dynastic politicians is the same as voting for corruption and plunder. Clearly, if Filipinos truly want to eliminate corruption, then the starting point is electing a fundamentally different kind of representative to congress.

Last Sunday’s “revolt of the soul” should be nurtured to evolve into a revolt against dynastic politicians. Reclaiming Congress from political dynasties is the only way to institute the systemic changes we so badly need. Obviously, political dynasties will never relinquish power voluntarily. Civil society must proactively seek alternatives to elect. And media organizations like the Philippine Press Institute and the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility should be taking the lead here.

These particular groups are uniquely positioned to convene conversations, amplify reformist voices, and connect communities across regions. By organizing regular townhall meetings in every province, media can bridge the gap between citizens, academics, journalists, and local officials. These gatherings need not be elaborate productions; even austere forums can serve as meaningful platforms for dialogue. What matters is creating an atmosphere conducive to candid deliberation about public affairs.

Two outcomes can be expected from these community assemblies. First, it can cultivate in the participants an urge to engage in political activities more regularly. Filipinos are notoriously known to be content just simply watching politics unfold much like a television drama. This reinforces a view of government as a distant actor whose role is to provide services, rather than a shared institution that citizens help shape and maintain. Shedding this passivity can ignite a robust collective challenge to dynastic domination.

Second, these regular community gatherings can allow true servant leaders to surface. The deliberative exercise enables the community itself to facilitate the emergence from its ranks the people best suited for public office. This is a proven pathway for future political leaders to be trained—not just to win elections but to govern with integrity. A community-driven leadership selection process can overturn the current monarchical way used by political dynasties to dominate elections.

But for these townhalls to succeed, the focus must be on the quality of deliberation. Moderators must ensure that participants feel safe to voice concerns while also being open to listen to each other. Mutual respect must be the underpinning principle of the deliberative process. Such exchanges transform politics from a distant spectacle into a lived conversation. Repeated encounters of this kind can nurture a civic culture where communities see themselves as active agents of governance. This is not utopian idealism but pragmatic nation-building through the everyday practice of democracy.

Ultimately, dismantling political dynasties and their crony networks will not be accomplished in one election. Indeed, resolving our systemic problems can only be done in phases, likely in the course of many elections. But we can only master wielding the power of the electorate if we fully embrace the grinding work it requires as outlined here. As we all know too well, this too will not happen overnight. Grinding being the operative word. But this is how the people’s boiling rage should be put to good use.

It is tempting to believe that mass actions can lead to the institutional reforms we all covet. But EDSA I and EDSA II remind us otherwise. It is undeniable, however, that Congress is a crime scene. Replace dynastic lawmakers and the annual plunder will stop, or at least, will be much harder to pull off. So, Gen Z and Millennial compatriots should go beyond the placards and rally slogans and internalize the fact that only voters can free Congress from the clutches of the pork barrel cartel.