Political Dynasties.
One of the petitioners submits that the Pork Barrel System enables
politicians who are members of political dynasties to accumulate funds to
perpetuate themselves in power, in contravention of Section 26, Article II of
the 1987 Constitution225 which states that:
Sec. 26. The State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public
service, and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by law.
(Emphasis and underscoring supplied)
At the outset, suffice it to state that the foregoing prov1s1on is
considered as not self-executing due to the qualifying phrase "as may be
defined by law." In this respect, said provision does not, by and of itself,
provide a judicially enforceable constitutional right but merely specifies guideline for legislative or executive action.226 Therefore, since there
appears to be no standing law which crystallizes the policy on political
dynasties for enforcement, the Court must defer from ruling on this issue.
In any event, the Court finds the above-stated argument on this score
to be largely speculative since it has not been properly demonstrated how the
Pork Barrel System would be able to propagate political dynasties.