Davao City Joins Nationwide Push for a Real Anti Political Dynasty Law

Quick Answer

The Dapat Isa Lang Movement launched its Davao City signature drive on June 30 at Ateneo de Davao University, aiming for 110,000 local signatures by October 15 as part of a nationwide push to force a referendum on limiting political dynasties.

What the Petition Would Do

The Dapat Isa Lang Movement is gathering signatures for a people's initiative under Article VI, Section 32 of the 1987 Constitution, a provision that lets citizens propose legislation directly if they collect enough verified signatures. Under the group's draft measure, only one national official and one local official from the same family could hold office at the same time, covering relatives up to the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity. The measure would also require a cooling off period before a family member could succeed a relative in the same post.

The movement launched nationally on May 8 at Obispado de Cubao, led by retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Tirol and former Commission on Elections Commissioner Luie Guia. Its national secretariat, Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan, coordinates the campaign together with Kontra Dinastiya, Clergy for Good Governance, the Democratic Insights Group, 1Sambayan, the Justice Reform Initiative, and Hiraya.

The Davao City Launch

The Davao City leg was held June 30 at Arrupe Hall in Ateneo de Davao University, where students lined up to become the campaign's first local signatories. Organizers set a target of 110,000 signatures from the city's three legislative districts by October 15. Participants closed the event by lighting what organizers called a flame of democracy, describing it as a promise that power belongs to the public rather than to any one family.

Miguel Karlo Abadines, executive director of Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan, told the crowd the movement is made up of people tired of the corruption and poverty they associate with dynastic rule. He framed the signature drive as a way for ordinary residents, not just lawmakers, to decide the issue directly.

Why Davao Is a Test Case

Davao City is a pointed venue for the campaign. Vice President Sara Duterte, her brother Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte, and Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte II all hold elected posts at once, alongside other relatives in local government, making the city one of the clearer examples nationwide of overlapping family control the movement wants to restrict.

Retired Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, one of the campaign's most prominent backers, has argued that dynasty bills already pending in the House and Senate will not break the pattern because sitting families control the budget process that would need to approve any such law. That, he says, is why the group is bypassing Congress through a people's initiative instead.

The Numbers Driving the Campaign

Organizers cite figures showing political dynasties now control 87 percent of Philippine provinces, 83 percent of legislative districts, and 75 percent of cities. Within Mindanao's 28 provinces, the group counts six where the governor, vice governor, and representative all come from one family, two where the governor and vice governor share a family, twelve where the governor and representative share a family, and three where the vice governor and representative share a family. Only five of the region's provinces, by the movement's count, currently elect officials from unrelated families.

Those numbers are the backbone of the group's pitch in Mindanao specifically, aimed at showing that dynastic overlap here is not the exception but closer to the rule.

Reaching the National Target

Nationally, the movement needs about 7 million signatures, roughly 10 percent of registered voters, by October 15 to force a referendum. Organizers are hoping for a vote in the first half of 2027, with the goal of having dynasty limits in place before the 2028 elections.

Beyond Davao, the campaign has also launched at Ateneo de Zamboanga and St. Paul University in Surigao. In Zamboanga City, the Zamboanga Basilan Integrated Development Alliance ran a training session on June 28 at the Campo Vida Agricultural Learning Center to prepare young volunteers to collect signatures in their own communities.