New tool maps political dynasties across the Philippines

 

MANILA — A new interactive online platform tracks the depth of political dynasties across the Philippines, where established families hold more than 80% of local and national legislative seats.

The platform, PulitiKlan (pulitiklan.com), uses an atlas map and a searchable database, allowing users to trace political families by province, city, individual name, or family name. Developed by computer programmer Jon Oraña, the tool maps 615 documented families across Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

According to a June 2025 study by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, dynastic families occupy 212 of the 254 district seats in the House of Representatives.

PulitiKlan tracks family relationships, generations in public service, and office histories using data pulled from official government records, including the Senate, the House of Representatives, and various department files, as well as reporting from news organizations such as the Philippine News Agency, Rappler, and VERA Files.

The platform also correlates political power with public works spending, displaying the number and total cost of flood control projects per locality using data from the Department of Public Works and Highways.

Its "Klan Power Ranking" index lists families with the highest number of relatives in office, currently led in Luzon by the Singson family of Ilocos Sur with 18 members, and in the Visayas by the Evardone family of Eastern Samar with nine.

Site documentation notes that the platform does not measure governance quality or political influence, and acknowledges its dataset remains incomplete.

The tool's launch comes amid renewed legal pressure on Congress to address family monopolies in government.

In September, the Supreme Court urged lawmakers to pass enabling legislation for Article II, Section 26 of the 1987 Constitution, which guarantees equal access to public service and prohibits political dynasties as defined by law. The court stated that 39 years of congressional inaction constituted grave abuse of discretion.

The House passed a bill in June banning dynasties up to the second degree of consanguinity or affinity. A counterpart bill remains pending on second reading in the Senate.

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