65 In Search of Credible Elections and Parties: The Philippine Paradox provinces on HDI performance in 2006 had an average of 2.8 political families while the lowest 20 provinces had 2.0 families per province. (see Table 8) Table 8: Political Families by Provincial Human Development Index (HDI) Rank: Top 20 and Lowest 20 Provinces Top 20 Provinces, HDI 2006 No. of Political Families (1987-2007) Average per Province 56 Lowest 20 Provinces, HDI 2006 40 2.8 2.0 Provinces without a Political Family 1.0 3.0 Of the fourteen provinces with the highest number of political families, six are in Luzon, four in the Visayas, and four in Mindanao (see Table 9). Seven of these provinces belong to the top 30 percent of HDI performers (Pangasinan, Tarlac, Batangas, Cebu, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, and Davao del Sur), four to those with mid-level HDI rankings (Nueva Ecija, Camarines Sur, Leyte, and Surigao del Norte) and three (Quezon, Surigao del Sur, and Davao Oriental) to the lowest 30 percent on HDI rankings in 2006. The list includes the country's three most populated provinces, Cebu, Negros Occidental and Pangasinan, each with six congressional seats.22 Majority of the political families listed for the Luzon and Visayas-based provinces come from the older and traditional political names while the Mindanao provinces of Surigao and Davao show a greater mix of old and new families, partly reflecting their “frontier” origins. Not surprisingly, the provinces in the Luzon and Visayas regions in this list have also been the traditional centers of landed and business power, the export crop economy, and favored access to national state resources. Many of the elites in these provinces trace the origins of their power back to the colonial era and the postwar years when their forebears commanded the most influential elective and appointive positions in government. Since the restoration of elections in 1987, the most dominant of these political families have succeeded in winning all elections for governors and congressional contests. Six provinces have been monopolized by a single family since 1992 (see Table 10). Three of these provinces have high income, health and education indicators while the three others have low HDI scores. Such overpowering dominance by these families is exemplified by the Ortegas of La Union. One of the most dominant political families in the country, the Ortegas have won all gubernatorial contests since 1988 and the congressional elections in the first district of the province from 1969 to the 2010 elections .