70 Chasing the Wind: Assessing Philippine Democracy political families in most of the provinces, the turnover rates for political family members running for governors and representatives on the average are equally low: 2.16 for governors and 1.84 for representatives (See Appendix B).25 With eight electoral cycles for the period being studied, the maximum turnover rate is seven if incumbent officials were replaced every election year. The data show that for eight election contests for governors between 1988 and 2010, one province (La Union) did not experience any turnover since the governorship was controlled by just one family (Ortega/Orros). There were 20 provinces with single turnovers, meaning that the governorship was dominated by only two families (see Appendix B). The province of Occidental Mindoro registered the highest turnover rate at five, while eight provinces (Benguet, Ifugao, Romblon, Catanduanes, Bohol, Eastern Samar, Misamis Occidental and Misamis Oriental) had four turnovers. Region 1 and Region 13 (CARAGA) show the lowest turnover rates for governors at 1.25 and 1.5 respectively (see Table 14). The La Union governorship has been controlled by one family, the Ortegas, for the entire period under study. Predictably, Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur have also been controlled by dominant families: the Marcoses in the former and the Singsons in the latter. While Pangasinan has the country's biggest number of political families at seven, it could only manage three turnovers for its governorship with the Agbayani family having served the longest at four terms. In Region 13, one finds some of the country's most dominant political families including the Plazas of Agusan del Sur who have controlled the governorship of the province from 1992 to the 2010 elections. In the other three provinces of the region, there have been only single turnovers for governorships from one family to the other for the same 21 year period. Thus, in Agusan del Norte, the Amante family has been dominant for the last 18 years; in Surigao del Sur, the Murillo and Pimentel families have shared control over the governorship; and in Surigao del Norte, the Matugas and Barbers family have dominated. The regions with the highest turnover rates for governors include Region 4-B (Mimaropa) at 3.0 and the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) at 2.67. (see Table 14) Region 4-B is made up of five island provinces ( Marinduque, Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Palawan, and Romblon) with relatively few established political families with the provincial mean at 1.4. All the five island provinces had poor HDI records in 2006 with Romblon ranked among the lowest 10. The CAR has the smallest number of political families with a regional mean of 0.83 and two of its provinces (Apayao and Kalinga) had no established political family. With the exception of Benguet, all the CAR provinces also had poor indices for income, health and education in 2006.

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