Justifying the possibility of having three Tulfo brothers in the Senate, aspirant Bienvenido “Ben” Tulfo made misleading statements on what constitutes a political dynasty and a law defining it.
STATEMENT
In a Feb. 12 interview on News5 TV network, Tulfo was asked to comment on observations that he and his brother, incumbent ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo, would comprise a dynasty should they win in the upcoming senatorial election and join their other brother, neophyte Sen. Raffy Tulfo, in the upper chamber. He responded:
“Sa aking pananaw, dinastiya ba kaming tatlo? Papaano kami magkakaroon ng dinastiya, eh, wala kaming balwarte? Kung kami nasa Senado, national ‘yan, eh. ‘Di mo pwedeng kontrolin ang tao [sa] Luzon, Visayas at Mindanao. Ang dinastiya meron diyang balwarte at sa balwarte na ‘yon papalitan lang kayo. Magpapalitan lang kayo; ‘yan ang dinastiya.”
(In my opinion, are we three a dynasty? How could we be a dynasty when we don’t have a base? If we all win in the Senate, it’s a national post. You cannot control people [in] Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. A dynasty has to have a geographical base and in that base you just alternate seats. You alternate taking elective positions; that’s a dynasty.)
Source: News5 Facebook Page, Mariing sinabi ni senatorial candidate Ben Tulfo na tutol siya sa political dynasty, Feb. 12, 2025, watch from 00:51 to 01:14
Tulfo also said:
“May batas ba tayo riyan [political dynasties]? Meron naman. Bakit hindi napapatupad? Ewan ba natin kung bakit. Bakit niyo sa akin tinatanong?
(Do we have a law on this? We do. Why is it not implemented? We don’t know why. Why are you asking me?)
Source: watch from 01:15 to 01:20
Four Tulfos are now occupying elective positions. One is Sen. Raffy Tulfo, and the three others are in the House of Representatives: ACT-CIS Reps. Erwin and Jocelyn Tulfo, wife of the Senator; and Quezon City Rep. Ralph Tulfo, son of Raffy and Jocelyn.
Wanda Tulfo-Teo, sister of the Tulfo brothers, was tourism secretary under the Duterte administration until her resignation in 2018. She is seeking election in May as the first nominee of Ang Turismo party-list while her son, Robert Tulfo-Teo, is its third nominee.
FACT
Tulfo’s statements are misleading. A political dynasty exists not only when multiple family members have dominant control over a certain locality.
According to studies published by political scientists, a political dynasty develops when members of the same family occupy elective positions either in sequence for the same position or simultaneously across different positions. It is also defined as a family with at least two members securing the same post in a minimum of two elections, based on a November 2024 paper by the Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department, the House of Representatives’ think tank for policy and institutional reforms.
Neither one mentions bailiwicks or geographical base.
While Section 26, Article 2 of the 1987 Constitution prohibits political dynasties, an enabling law still needs to be passed by Congress defining it. From 2004 to 2022, at least 45 bills were filed in the Senate and the House of Representatives, attempting to define what constitutes a political dynasty and prohibit its creation. None of these have been passed into law, based on a 2021 study that analyzed proposed legislations from the 13th (2004-2007) to the 18th (2019-2022) Congress
to fulfill the constitutional provision.
Two bills prohibiting political dynasties were filed in the current 19th Congress. Both have been stuck in the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms since 2022.
In an anti-political dynasty bill filed in 2016, then-Kabayan party-list representative Harry Roque said that of the country’s 80 provinces, 94% or 73 have political dynasties.
