House of Representatives (HOR) Majority Floor Leader Sandro Marcos said several parties allied with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. “met for many weeks” to choose who will replace Tacloban Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez as speaker. He thus suggested that they looked hard among the 317 members, someone who would lead in “resuscitating the people’s trust on the House.”
The legislators who should be squirming under mounting accusations of corruption in public works projects came up with President Marcos Jr.’s Partido Federal partymate and Isabela 6th District Rep. Faustino “Bojie” Dy III. There were 253 representatives who voted for him while 28 abstained.
The new Speaker is a second generation dynast who himself has successfully co-created the next generation of heirs to their political fiefdom. His congressional district is barely seven years old but his clan had been in power since the 1960s. His father was municipal councilor and mayor of Cauayan City and multi-term Isabela governor from 1971 to 1992. Their father was succeeded by the Speaker’s brother Benjamin who was governor until 2001. After Benjamin, it was Bojie’s turn to become governor from 2010-2019. Throughout, various members of their clan held several other elective positions in Cauayan, neighboring municipalities, congressional districts, the provincial council and the vice-governorship of one of the country’s biggest provinces.
Bojie’s current congressional district is a new one, created through Republic Act No. 11080, which reapportioned Isabela from four to six legislative districts. The Dys had a direct hand in the creation of the two new districts. It was signed by President Rodrigo Duterte on 27 September 2018. The 6th District is composed of Cauayan City (a traditional Dy political bailiwick), and the towns of Echague, San Guillermo and San Isidro. Bodjie ran unopposed in the 2025 congressional elections.
In the past two terms (18th and 19th Congresses) since its creation, the sixth district has been held by Bojie’s son, Faustino “Inno” A. Dy V. Three of Isabela’s six legislative districts are held by the “Dy-nasty.” The speaker’s nephews Faustino Michael Carlos Dy III and Ian Paul Dy are representatives of the 5th and 3rd Districts, respectively.
Currently, Inno is the mayor of Echague town. He is married to Anna Sheena Tan-Dy, the incumbent mayor of Santiago City, and herself a former representative of Isabela’s 4th District.
After the 2025 elections, Tan-Dy swapped positions with her cousin, former Mayor and now Rep. Joseph Tan. Isabela’s vice governor is the speaker’s son, Kiko.
The province’s 3rd District Rep. is Ian Dy, 5th District Rep. is Mike Dy., Cauayan City’s mayor is Caesar Dy while Benjie Dy is his vice mayor. San Manuel’s municipal mayor is Dondon Dy. Another, King Dy is board member for Isabela’s 5th District.
It is quite apparent that elective positions in southern Isabela have become the Dy’s bread and butter for the better part of six decades.
The dynasty’s nemesis, former Isabela governor Grace Padaca and the first one that broke the Dy’s stranglehold of the capitol, had a recent Facebook post simultaneous with Bojie’s ascendancy as the country’s new speaker. Padaca wrote that she used to describe greed among fellow Isabelinos as a family who arrived at a barangay fiesta, ate all the food and did not share it with others. “If you are greedy for positions, is it farfetched that you will also become greedy on corruption?” she asked.
In his first ever address of the HOR as Speaker, Bojie said: “Under my leadership, this House will change. I will not defend the guilty, I will not shield the corrupt.” He also promised: “No rank, no ally, no office will be spared from accountability…Our duty is not to protect each other—our duty is to protect the Filipino people.”
But he and 12 other provincial officials faced plunder charges over an allegedly anomalous road project worth P1.38 billion just last 2022 when he was vice governor. They were accused by former Angadanan Mayor Manuel Siquian of conducting no public bidding that resulted in “unwarranted benefits” for the Dys since the road led to a beach property they owned.
That a dynast who has an unremarkable legislative record and himself been accused of graft and corruption is chosen as the fourth highest official of the country betrays a dearth of choice among the president’s allies in Congress. This explains why it took them weeks to choose. They could find no one acceptable that the people could rally around to in Marcos Jr.’s lame anti-corruption sarsuela. Bojie as Speaker only succeeds in showing how broken and rotten government is.
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan is right. The leadership change at the HOR yesterday and the Senate last week will not prevent people joining protests.
See you Sunday, and beyond! # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
