Schools, specially Catholic schools, play a vital role in shaping how citizens understand power, justice, and public responsibility. In the face of long-standing systemic corruption as seen in scandals such as the trillion infrastructure projects, the Fertilizer scam, Napoles, Pharmally, and even historical plunder during Martial Law, the persistence of political dynasties has made these cycles difficult to break. As the People’s Initiative manifesto clearly states, this is not a series of isolated cases but a system where a few families continue to dominate public office, control resources, and shape laws for their own continuity. Schools, therefore, are essential in helping the public understand these realities and in forming citizens who recognize that democracy cannot thrive when political power is concentrated within dynasties.
Pope Leo XIV, in Drawing New Maps of Hope, reminds us that education must help people imagine and build a more just society, where dignity, participation, and truth guide public life. This vision challenges schools to go beyond academic formation and actively shape citizens who are critically aware and socially engaged. In this spirit, the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) has already endorsed the people’s initiative for a genuine Anti-Political Dynasty Law and has mobilized all Catholic schools across 17 regions through our regional trustees and Catholic school superintendents. This is part of CEAP’s commitment to form learners and communities who are not passive observers but active participants in democratic renewal.
Through the Dapat Isa Lang movement, citizens are calling for a law that limits dynasty rule, prevents succession within families, sets boundaries up to the fourth degree of consanguinity, and enforces cooling-off periods after term limits. Schools are crucial in strengthening this call by educating communities on why these reforms matter for accountability, fairness, and better governance. Guided by pag-asa, katarungan, ginhawa, at pagkakaisa, CEAP stands with the people’s initiative as a partner in formation and advocacy. The goal is clear: to help build a Philippines where public office is earned through service and merit, not inherited through political families.
To close let me reiterate CEAP’s call to action released in a statement “BREAK THE HOLD OF DYNASTIES”, (the statement by the way was released in partnership with Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan, CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Catholic Education, and Caritas Philippines). The portion reads:
A community grounded in faith and education, we recognize the moral weight of this issue. A political culture built on dynastic privilege contradicts the principles of justice, human dignity, shared responsibility, and service to the common good. We call on civil society to remain vigilant, educational institutions to cultivate ethically and critically minded citizens, Congress to act with integrity and courage, and the Executive Branch to champion reform not as a political maneuver but as a moral imperative.
To the youth, we speak with hope. Reject the cynicism that surrounds you. Proactively engage in civic and political life with clarity, courage, and conscience. Demand accountability. Insist that leadership be earned, not inherited. The passage of a genuine political dynasty prohibition law is a collective step toward a future where political space is broadened, new voices are empowered, and equality is no longer deferred but fully realized.
Let us heed the words of Pope Leo XIV: “We must be increasingly committed to resolving the structural causes of poverty; this cannot be delayed. Society must be cured of a sickness that weakens and frustrates it, and mere welfare projects are only provisional responses. Inequality remains the root of social ills.”
Therefore, let us break the hold of dynasties. In faith and solidarity, we commit to structural reform now-for justice, for the poor, for the common good.
