Ben Tulfo rejects political dynasty label as 2 more Tulfos aim for Senate

Commission on Elections. INQUIRER FILES

MANILA, Philippines — Senatorial aspirant and broadcaster Ben Tulfo denied accusations that his bid would lead to the creation of another political dynasty.

Ben pushed back against this notion amid the possibility of having three Tulfo brothers in the Senate.

His brother Raffy is an incumbent senator, and Erwin, a former Department of Social Welfare and Development chief and current ACT-CIS representative, also announced his bid for the upper chamber.

“As to the question of dynasty. Yes, we’re [a] dynasty in terms of helping people — in the media first,” Ben said in an interview after filing his certificate of candidacy in Manila Hotel Tent City.

READ: Ben Tulfo files COC for senator  

“We broke the record…I’m sorry, modesty aside, we lorded over helping people,”  he also said. “Is that a dynasty? No, it’s not.”

Ben noted that the Tulfo brothers do not have a district, which he said enables local elective officials to form a dynasty.

“We don’t have a district. Maybe on the executive level, you could say that when you run for governor or mayor because you have a district. But running for the Senate, it’s a national office, you cannot have a dynasty,” he said, partly in Filipino.

Tulfo also noted that it was not their fault if he and his brothers just happened to love to be in the same profession.

“Just like the family of lawyers. Everybody wants to be a lawyer because the daddy was a lawyer, the mom was a lawyer, so everybody calls them family [of] lawyers. Sometimes a family of doctors, [a] family of engineers. Because of the influence of a member of the family, we decided to love the profession and respect the profession and value the particular profession, how can you call that a dynasty?” he said.

“It’s not our fault; people are supposed to pick,” he added.