The message from the Maguindanao massacre was clear: election day may still be six months away, yet some of the country’s largest and most influential political clans have already started flexing their muscles in preparation for the coming electoral fight. For decades, political families, not political parties, have been the most significant force behind Philippine politics; elections are exercises or tests of the political clout of local families, if not mere bitter contests with rival clans.

But the Ampatuans are far from being unique; as PCIJ fellow Julio Teehankee notes in his article “And the Clans Played On,” 160 families have dominated the Philippine Congress for more than a century. Promises are not the only repetitive element throughout more than half a century of elections – the surnames on the ballots never seem to change either.

Over the last two decades, the PCIJ has written extensively about the the clans that have held sway over the country. And while nothing can possibly explain what happened in Ampatuan, Maguindanao, the following stories, written by PCIJ fellows and staffmembers over the years, help us understand how the influence of a few familiar-sounding families can keep us mired firmly in the problems of the past.