A big majority of current provincial governors are scions of political families, according to a survey conducted by Newsbreak, representing little diversion from the political profiles of past batches of governors.

Newsbreak’s survey, however, showed an encouraging trend of these political scions having diverse professional backgrounds compared to the from-college-to-politics path that many members of political dynasties had been traditionally known to take.

Learn more about this topic, as well as other related stories, by visiting the Local Government and Taxes page of our Democracy and Governance site.

The survey, which was completed in early April, was conducted for the database project on local government units funded by the United Nations Democracy Fund. It was meant to look into the kind of trainings that those holding local elected positions had before they entered politics.

Newsbreak sent a questionnaire to the 80 governors, asking for their personal and educational backgrounds and their political profiles. (There are 81 provinces, but the winner in the gubernatorial election in Shariff Kabunsuan has yet to be proclaimed.) We received responses from 58 governors—29 from Luzon, 14 from the Visayas, and 15 from Mindanao. (Click here to view the list of governors who responded to the survey)

Of the 58 respondent governors, 37 came from political families, constituting 63.79 percent; 18 do not belong to political clans. Newsbreak could not verify with other sources whether three respondent governors have relatives who are holding elective positions.

A governor is considered part of a political family if he or she is related by blood or by marriage to persons who held or is currently holding an elective position.

Most of those who participated in the survey had served as district representatives before they were elected governor. Almost 28 percent of them were congressmen, while 24.13 percent were mayors, before becoming governor.

A study by the Institute for Popular Democracy showed that majority of the governors elected in 1998, 2001, and 2004 came from political families. In the 1998 elections, 64 percent of governors (50 of the 78 governors) came from political clans. The figure rose to 79 percent (61 of the 76 governors included in the study) in 2001, and to 80 percent (63 out of 78 governors) in 2004.

In Newsbreak’s survey, the percentage of governors who simply have relatives in government—without distinction between those with elective positions and those holding appointed or career positions in government—is much higher at 72.41 percent, almost three-fourths of the respondents.

The greatest number of governors (16 of them, or 27.58 percent) has relatives who are congressmen, followed by 13 (or 22.41 percent) who have mayors for relatives. Three governors (5.17 percent) are related to senators.

Five percent of governors are related to provincial or municipal employees, while 4 percent are related to teachers, and another 4 percent are related to judges or prosecutors.

More than one third of the governors (36.20 percent) have a sibling that is currently holding a position in the government, while 18 percent of the governors have children working in the government.

A good number of governors, however, no longer fit the stereotype of politicians’ children filling in their parents’ shoes even before they could practice in the field they studied in college. Forty-five out of 58 (77.58 percent) had practiced as businessmen, doctors, lawyers, engineers, and professors before their foray into politics.

Newsbreak did not count in jobs in agencies (13.79 percent of the governors), and in the military and the police (1.72 percent) because these are government jobs and are closer to elective positions.

Twenty-four of 58 governors (41.37 percent) were businessmen or businesswomen before they assumed elective positions. Ten of the 58 governors in the survey (17.24 percent) were working as lawyers, while five (or 8.62 percent) were doctors or health professionals.

A big majority of the governors (70.68 percent) have a bachelor’s degree. Governors with master’s degree accounted for 17.24 percent, while those with doctorate degrees (PhDs and MDs) accounted for 8.62 percent.

More than one-third of them (36.20 percent) studied business-related courses—business administration, management, commerce, economics, and accountancy—while 32.74 percent were able to obtain a law degree.

Click here to see the complete results of the survey.

This article was made possible with support provided by the United Nations Democracy Fund and the United Nations Development Programme in the Philippines. The opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and Newsbreak and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations Democracy Fund and the United Nations Development Programme in the Philippines.

---

INTERACT WITH THIS ARTICLE