Politics as we all know deals with all kinds of laws, affairs of the country, budget of the

country, the economy and the safety of the land and its citizens. In the Philippines, when I hear
about politics corruption always comes to my mind because almost all the news involving
politicians are more or less associated with corruption. In the article about the self-perpetuating
elites of the Philippines that I have read, I gained the knowledge that the democratic system that
the Philippines has is not doing any good to our citizens and to our country itself and we need to
somehow change the system because sooner or later it will destroy us all.

According to the article, this system was traced back when the Spaniards decided to
appoint the most prominent illustrados as feudal lords in each town and province to rule and to
collect taxes for the Spaniards government. This illustrados or feudal lords was still being
continued even when the Americans was colonizing us. They continued the Spaniards way and
the Americans have also started appointing local illustrados into political positions. This is where
the political dynasties in the Philippines have started and made their names in terms of political
officials. And this was the time where local illustrados who kept the political powers within their
family started to rise, the Osmena, Lopez, Cojuangco, Roxas, Aquino, Macapagal, and Marcos
household names in the Philippine politics.

According to Carlos Conde, the family dynasties still has control of politics, and was an
offshoot of the country’s colonial experience, in which the American and Spanish colonizer has
nurtured, even after the country gained independence. The feudal system is still active now and it
is not bringing any good to our country in the past years, because these family dynasties has
decided to work together and keep the feudal system. Almost all family dynasty in each town
and province are related to each other and they are part of the self-perpetuating elites of the
Philippines. There is some cases where non-elites were also included in the elite’s scheme one of
them is Ejercito, who made a name for himself as an actor, and used his fame as an actor to enter
the world of politics and eventually became president in 1998. Another one is Binay, he was an
orphan and he studied law and became a lawyer who volunteered to provide free legal assistance
to victims of human rights during the Marcos era. He is also an ardent supporter of Cory Aquino
and was rewarded with an appointment as a mayor in Makati. From here on out he made his way
until he won as vice-president in 2010. The descendants of Ejercito and Binay succeeded them
and was also brought into the world of politics which made another name as a self-perpetuating
elite.

The bad side about all of this family dynasty is that corruption, fraud and violence will
always take place. There is a case where the family dynasty produced a fixer named Janet Lim
Napoles who conspired with the elites to steal taxpayer money. Napoles revealed the senators
who was involved with the scam namely, Juan Ponce-Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, Bong Revilla,
Gringo Honasan, Loren Legarda, Loi Ejercito, Vic Sotto, Rodolfo Biazon, Tessie Aquino-Oreta,
Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., Manny Villar, Chiz Escudero, Cynthia Villar, Aquilino
“Koko” Pimentel, Jr., Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Sr., Alan Peter Cayetano and Lito Lapid. All of
them were part of the self-perpetuating elites but not all elites were involved in the scam.

In conclusion, if we still let them continue to preserve the democratic of the Philippines,
it will just do more harm than good. Nothing is good if they are involved in something politics is
concerned. It will be just another fraud, corruption or violence, and we need to open our eyes and
see the fault in our system.