With 317 congressional seats and practically 18,000 native positions at stake, the Could 12 midterm election leads to the Philippines imply various things to individuals throughout the archipelago. However even a number of hours after the unofficial outcomes got here in, the brute info had already turn into clear.
Native elections for municipal and metropolis mayorships, provincial governorships and congressional seats predictably produced victories for entrenched native “dynasties”. The benefits of incumbency – management over the patronage assets and regulatory powers of the state – ensured reelection for a lot of sitting mayors, governors and congress members.
Midterm elections within the Philippines additionally embody half of the seats within the nationally elected 24-member Senate. They thus serve concurrently as checks for presidents midway by means of their single six-year phrases and previews of the subsequent presidential election, on this case in 2028.
The most recent mid-terms have been notable for his or her – in the end ambiguous – implications for a significant household feud on the prime of the nation’s politics. This feud pits the household of present president Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. towards that of his vice-president, Sara Duterte.
The elections have did not strengthen both household decisively, so their bitter rivalry is prone to proceed all through the rest of Marcos’s time period.
This household feud dates again to late 2021. At the moment, Duterte agreed to run as Marcos’s working mate for presidential elections the next 12 months regardless of her clear lead in nationwide voter desire surveys.
The Marcos-Duterte ticket received a landslide victory. They benefited from the endorsement and help of the incumbent president, Rodrigo Duterte, whose enduring recognition prolonged to his daughter Sara.
However following Marcos’s inauguration in late June 2022, a rift between the 2 households started to open up. Marcos settled into his presidential position and started to distance himself from the signature insurance policies of his predecessor.
As a substitute of cultivating shut ties with China, Marcos strengthened relations with the US. And as an alternative of constant Duterte’s so-called “war on drugs”, Marcos publicly spotlighted corruption within the Philippine Nationwide Police (PNP).
By 2024, Marcos started to sign his authorities’s willingness to cooperate with the Worldwide Legal Court docket in its investigation of Duterte’s position within the hundreds of extrajudicial killings undertaken within the warfare on medication. Then, in March 2025, Duterte was arrested and transferred to The Hague. He is because of stand trial within the coming months.
Relations between the president and his vice-president have additionally damaged down. Sara Duterte resigned from her cupboard publish in 2024 amid corruption allegations, with subsequent months seeing escalating public hostilities between Marcos and herself. These included claims of demise threats and assassination plots.
The Home of Representatives voted by a transparent majority to question Duterte in February 2025, setting the stage for a Senate trial later within the 12 months. Towards this backdrop, the midterms served as a type of pre-trial proxy warfare between the 2 households.
Sara Duterte speaks throughout a marketing campaign rally of senatorial candidates backed by her father and former Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, in Manila on Could 8.
Francis R. Malasig / EPA
The Dutertes fielded ten candidates for Senate, the so-called “Duterten”. Additionally they endorsed two of the 12 candidates within the Marcos-backed Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas (Alliance for a New Philippines). The marketing campaign was dominated by mudslinging between the 2 camps within the media and on social media. And the ultimate outcomes have proved decidedly combined.
On the one hand, pro-Duterte voters got here out in a present of pressure to assist candidates within the slate backed by the previous president. This was foreshadowed by Marcos’s declining recognition following the arrest of his predecessor and the impeachment of his vice-president.
Longtime Duterte lieutenant, Christopher “Bong” Go, received reelection and probably the most votes of all candidates. Duterte’s former police chief, Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, additionally secured one other time period with a third-place displaying.
The sixth-placed winner was Rodante Marcoleta, one other Duterte-backed candidate. He’s a tv broadcaster and member of the Iglesia Ni Cristo, an unbiased church whose practically 3 million members have lengthy been considered as a single stable voting bloc.
Two Alyansa candidates, Imee Marcos, the president’s estranged sister, and Camille Villar, daughter of rich real-estate mogul and former senator Manuel “Manny” Villar, additionally received seats with the specific blessings of the Dutertes.
He was accompanied by 4 former senators additionally affiliated with Alyansa. These included ex-PNP chief Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, longtime tv character Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, Pia Cayetano along with her base in rich Taguig Metropolis, and former motion movie star Lito Lapid.
However, total, the mid-terms don’t appear to have improved the prospects for the profitable conviction of Sara Duterte. Alongside the successful Alyansa candidates, voters additionally returned two distinguished opposition candidates, Paolo “Bam” Aquino and Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, to the Senate. They oppose each the Marcos administration and the Duterte camp.
On the similar time, there are questions concerning the allegiances of a number of of the 12 senators already seated. This provides a further problem within the seek for the 16 senators required to safe impeachment.
Duterte together with his lawyer Salvador Medialdea within the courtroom of the Worldwide Legal Court docket in The Hague, Netherlands, in March 2025.
Peter Dejong / EPA
Duterte – and her father, simply reelected as Davao’s mayor whereas awaiting trial in The Hague – additionally nonetheless take pleasure in assist amongst many citizens, particularly of their southern dwelling base in Mindanao.
The 24 elected members of the Senate are delicate to public opinion and their very own reelection prospects in 2028 and past. So, lots of them will in all probability select to hedge their bets and see the place the winds are blowing because the trial unfolds.
The household feud dominating the nationwide political scene appears to be like set to stay unresolved over the months and years forward.
