Over the years, political dynasties have both defined and redefined their presence through Philippine elections. It would be inconceivable—if not impossible—to imagine an election without members of the same family winning posts either in succession or simultaneously.
Studies conducted by the Ateneo School of Government (ASOG) identify two types of political dynasties inherent to Philippine experience. "Thin" dynasties involve family members succeeding one another in office [sunod-sunod], often as a means to circumvent term limits and maintain political influence. In contrast, "fat" dynasties are composed of family members running for and holding multiple positions at the same time [sabay-sabay] in the legislative and executive branches of government (Mendoza, et al., 2019).
Across the country, some dynasties have maintained their grip on power since the American colonial period, while others have gradually faded over time. A few have staged comebacks by forging alliances with other political families. Meanwhile, new surnames have emerged, either dominating traditional strongholds or carving out their own political territories.
This project examines dynastic families in the ten (10) most vote-rich provinces of the Philippines for the 2025 elections. Using the 1992–2022 database of the Ateneo Policy Center, supplemented by additional historical research from News5 Digital, we compiled lists of family members for each province.
The Ateneo database contains more than 200,000 entries spanning 81 provinces over a 30-year period (1992–2022). Through a combination of AI tools and manual review, the dominant families in the ten largest voting provinces were identified and arranged chronologically, from the oldest to the youngest members on record. While some family rosters are exhaustive, others remain incomplete due to the lack or scarcity of information confirming each member's position and term of service. Some families, despite long periods of electoral inactivity or limited participation, are still included due to their continuing relevance to the discourse on dynastic politics in the Philippines.
