Dasmariñas chose another Barzaga. What happens now?

Dasmariñas had an unusual opportunity this weekend: choose again.

Barely a year after voters elected Francisco “Kiko” Barzaga to Congress, the House expelled him after an extraordinary 265-14 vote with 8 abstentions. His removal forced a special election for Cavite’s fourth congressional district, putting a seat held by the Barzaga family for years back before voters much earlier than anyone expected.

Dasmariñas chose another Barzaga.

Jennifer “Jenny” Austria-Barzaga, Kiko’s mother and the city’s incumbent mayor, won the special election with 201,893 votes. Her closest rival, former vice mayor Rex Mangubat, conceded Saturday night. More than 258,000 voters participated despite heavy rains that forced election officials to extend voting hours.

The interesting question isn’t whether the Barzaga dynasty survived Kiko’s expulsion. We already have the answer. It did, overwhelmingly.

The question is what Dasmariñas gets in return for giving the family another mandate.

For nearly three decades, the Barzagas have been fixtures of political power in Dasmariñas. The late Elpidio “Pidi” Barzaga Jr. first became mayor in 1998. Since then, political power has moved among members of the family and between City Hall and Congress. Since the fourth congressional district began electing its own representative in 2010, every person elected to represent the city in Congress has been a Barzaga.

Kiko’s expulsion could have disrupted that. Instead, the special election demonstrated just how durable the family’s political base remains.

And Jenny’s victory should not be dismissed as voters merely recognizing a familiar surname. She has her own political history. She served as mayor for multiple terms and previously represented the same district in Congress from 2016 to 2019. Her main opponent was not a political unknown either. Mangubat had spent more than two decades in local politics, including nine years as vice mayor, and explicitly campaigned on the need for checks and balances and against the concentration of political power within families.

Dasmariñas had a choice. Its voters made one. That choice deserves to be respected. But an overwhelming mandate should also invite overwhelming scrutiny.

Jenny’s previous congressional record offers some indication of what may come next. Her earlier tenure was largely district-oriented, including legislation involving barangay creation, local roads, and the city’s foundation day. It was a more conventional approach to representation than the national political persona her son eventually developed.

Kiko’s brief tenure became defined by confrontation: social media battles, attacks against political figures, clashes with House leadership, and behavior that ultimately resulted in his expulsion. Jenny does not necessarily represent a continuation of that politics simply because she shares his surname.

But her return to Congress will produce another consequence.

Once Jenny leaves the mayoralty, Vice Mayor Elpidio “Third” Barzaga III, another of her sons, is positioned to succeed her as mayor. An episode that began with one Barzaga being removed from Congress could therefore end with Jenny Barzaga in Congress and Third Barzaga leading City Hall.

The dynasty did not merely survive the crisis. It reorganized itself around it. That makes the next few years important.

Dasmariñas should be asking what legislation Jenny will prioritize, what national issues she will take positions on, how aggressively she will fight for the district’s needs, and whether decades of political continuity have translated into institutions and public services strong enough to justify voters repeatedly returning the same family to power.

Because political dynasties are often discussed as though their existence alone explains everything about local politics. It doesn’t. Families remain in power not only because they have machinery, resources, and name recognition, but because elections repeatedly return them there.

Dasmariñas just did so again. The special election was an unexpected referendum on whether the Barzaga name could survive one of the family’s biggest political crises. The verdict was emphatic.

Now comes the harder part.

If Dasmariñas continues to place its trust in the Barzagas, the more useful question is no longer how long the family can stay in power. It is whether that power continues to give the city enough reason to keep them there.