MANILA, Philippines – Round this time in 2022, then-presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. promised voters “unity” in a marketing campaign speech that was scant on platform however heavy on imagery of a Philippines freed from strife.
Alongside the “tiger of the north” was working mate Sara Duterte, the eldest daughter of then-president Rodrigo Duterte. Theirs was a formidable tandem that introduced collectively the nation’s greatest and strongest clans and coalitions — the notorious ones included.
However that unity — solid due to comfort and circumstance — is lengthy gone.
Three years later, Vice President Duterte is impeached by a Home of Representatives dominated by Marcos’ allies, and led by his cousin and Duterte’s 2022 marketing campaign co-manager Home Speaker Martin Romualdez.
Ilocos Norte 1st District Consultant Sandro Marcos, the President’s eldest son who as soon as proudly stood beside Duterte within the 2022 election marketing campaign, was the first signatory within the impeachment criticism towards the Vice President.
On Might 12, Filipinos will choose 12 new members of the Senate from 64 candidates, and a party-list group from a pool of 155. All native posts — from governor, mayor, and all the way down to metropolis or city councilors — are additionally up for grabs.
However make no mistake — the 2025 polls are as a lot a referendum on Marcos’ promise of a “Bagong Pilipinas” as it’s a gauge of the ability of the Duterte title.
The marketing campaign interval for nationwide posts and party-list teams kicks off on February 11 — Marcos’ Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas with a four-city hop in its first week, and impartial candidates in expectedly smaller occasions throughout the Philippines on February 11 and subsequent days after.
Election backdrop
A lot has occurred since Duterte first took her oath as vice chairman in Davao Metropolis and Marcos was sworn into workplace on the steps of the Nationwide Museum of Positive Arts.
Marcos has damaged away from his predecessor in quite a few methods — most notably on international coverage, the West Philippine Sea, in coping with China, and even in his rhetoric of a “cold” marketing campaign towards unlawful medicine.
Vice President Duterte, in the meantime, formally broke away from the administration when she stepped down as Marcos’ training chief. Inside two months of her resignation, the Marcos-allied Home fashioned a “mega-panel” that may probe hyperlinks between Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs), Chinese language syndicates, the unlawful drug commerce, and extrajudicial killings within the nation. Former president Duterte’s struggle on medicine was entrance and middle throughout the so-called quad comm probe.
The 2025 midterm elections can be important for the Dutertes, as an impeachment trial towards the Vice President looms, and a probe — or perhaps a attainable arrest warrant — from the Worldwide Prison Court docket stays a chance for her father.
The Vice President will want at the least eight allies within the Senate to safe her acquittal. In any other case, she faces ouster and perpetual disqualification from public workplace, which suggests she could be ineligible to run in 2028, a presidential race some imagine is hers to lose.
Marcos enters the halfway level of his six-year time period with a substantial drop in each public belief and approval scores. In accordance with the December 2024 Pulse Asia survey, Marcos has a 47% belief score, solely barely decrease than Duterte’s 49%. The identical survey confirmed 48% approval of Marcos’ efficiency and 50% approval of Duterte’s efficiency.
In distinction, Marcos loved a 73% belief score and a 68% approval score in Pulse Asia’s December 2023 survey. Duterte, in the identical survey, had a 78% belief score and a 74% approval score.
A newer January 2025 survey by the Social Climate Stations commissioned by Stratbase put Marcos’ belief score at 50%, and Duterte’s belief score at 49% — each representing large drops from July 2024 (Marcos registered 64% belief, whereas Duterte had a 65% belief score.)
Strarbase’s Dindo Manhit, attributed the “steady drop” of Marcos’ numbers to “rising frustration over the federal government’s weak response to rising inflation.” The value of products, jobs, and poverty discount are constant prime issues of Filipinos, based mostly on Pulse Asia’s common polling.
The Marcos administration has had its share of very public hiccups, the breakdown of the 2022 alliance not included.
Marcos was concurrent agriculture chief till November 2023, whilst the costs of fundamental meals commodities had sharply risen.
His administration opened 2025 with a price range fiasco. First, the nineteenth Congress’ model apparently didn’t align together with his administration’s imaginative and prescient. After weeks of scrambling to repair after which signal the price range into legislation, a Duterte-allied lawmaker accused Marcos and Malacañang of supposedly filling-in-the-blanks, as a result of Congress had apparently authorised a price range with blanks in it.
However it could be the developments associated to Vice President Duterte’s impeachment — consummated simply days earlier than the marketing campaign kick off — that may absolutely hog the headlines.
Reelectionists
Seven senators are in search of reelection to the higher chamber: Pia Cayetano, Ronald dela Rosa, Bong Go, Imee Marcos, Bong Revilla, Lito Lapid, and Francis Tolentino.
Cayetano, Revilla, Lapid, and Tolentino are working below the administration coalition slate, Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas. The President’s eldest sister Imee Marcos, a staunch ally of the Dutertes, remains to be a part of the slate even after she introduced her withdrawal so she might run “independently.”
Chatting with reporters on February 8, Alyansa marketing campaign supervisor Navotas Consultant Toby Tiangco mentioned Senator Marcos is invited to the entire coalition’s sorties. Requested if Senator Marcos will be a part of the marketing campaign kick-off in Laoag Metropolis, Tiangco mentioned it could be “extra thrilling” to attend and see.
A supply informed Rappler that Senator Marcos is anticipated to affix the slate and her brother onstage on February 11. She is working below the Nacionalista Get together, which is a part of the administration coalition.
Within the newest Social Climate Stations survey commissioned by Stratbase Consultancy and held in January, 5 of the reelectionists made it to the profitable circle: Lapid (third to 4th), Go (third to 4th), Cayetano (seventh to eighth), Dela Rosa (tenth), and Revilla (eleventh to thirteenth). Senator Marcos and Tolentino ranked 14th and between twentieth and twenty first, respectively, regardless of their huge advert spending.
The reelectionists face a novel conundrum — when the marketing campaign is over, there’s the impeachment criticism to handle. Will they put on their hearts on their sleeves and converse publicly on whether or not they approve of the impeachment or not? After all, all seven can decide to maintain mum, citing the should be neutral — or at the least have the impression of impartiality — as a result of they’ll finally sit as senator-judges within the impeachment trial.
Comeback youngsters
Former Senate president Tito Sotto, together with former senators and dropping 2022 presidential candidates Manny Pacquiao and Ping Lacson, are making comeback bids within the higher chamber.
All three, based mostly on the most recent SWS survey, are shoo-ins for the Senate race. They’re additionally members of the administration coalition.
Sotto’s contemporary bid for a return to the Senate comes at a very attention-grabbing time, with the latest controversy surrounding filmmaker Darryl Yap and his upcoming movie, The Rapists of Pepsi Paloma. The movie facilities on the late actress Pepsi Paloma, who was allegedly gang-raped after being drugged in a lodge room. The movie implicates Sotto, who’s accused of coercing Paloma into signing an affidavit of desistance and dropping the fees.
One other aspirant for a return to the Senate is Gringo Honasan, who final held a seat in 2019.
The once-ruling Liberal Get together is endorsing solely two senatorial candidates: dropping 2022 vice presidential candidate Kiko Pangilinan and Leni Robredo marketing campaign supervisor Bam Aquino.
Pangilinan is an LP member whereas Aquino is the pinnacle of beginner political occasion Katipunan ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KANP). The 2 can be kicking off their bids in Cavite Metropolis on February 11, alongside Senator Risa Hontiveros and Robredo.
Of the reelectionists and Senate return hopefuls, seven had been senators over the past impeachment trial to happen within the nation, towards former chief justice Renator Corona. Revilla, Lacson, Sotto, Pangilinan, Cayetano, Lapid, and Honasan all donned maroon robes in a months-long trial that finally led to Corona’s ouster.
New faces, previous names
Actor and noontime present host Willie Revillame can be aiming for a spot within the higher chamber. Revillame is working as an impartial candidate within the 2025 elections, though he had introduced greater than a yr in the past that he was prepared to simply accept former president Rodrigo Duterte’s supply for him to run below the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino (PDP-Laban).
In a race the place reputation typically trumps platform and plans, the wildly in style Revilla is ranked 11-13 within the newest SWS choice ballot.
The youngsters of giants in Philippine politics are additionally in search of a debut within the Senate, most notably, Makati Mayor Abby Binay and Deputy Home Speaker Camille Villar.
Binay is the sister of the outgoing Senator Nancy Binay. Each are the daughters of former vice presidential and dropping 2016 presidential candidate Jejomar Binay. The youthful Binay has been rating effectively in choice surveys, inserting ninth within the final SWS survey.
As dominant because the household title has been in Makati and as fixed as their presence has been within the Senate, theirs is a clan that hasn’t been in political concord. Senator Binay can be in search of the Makati mayoralty seat towards Abby’s husband, Makati 2nd district Consultant Luis Campos.
Villar is the daughter of outgoing Senator Cynthia Villar and former Senate president and 2010 presidential candidate Manny Villar. If she wins, she can be a member of the twentieth Congress alongside her brother, Senator Mark Villar. The youngest Villar has ranked between 12-14 within the newest surveys.
Progressive candidates are additionally in search of out Senate seats in 2025, though none of them are rating excessive in voter choice surveys.
Makabayan is fielding an 11-person lineup: Liza Maza, Mody Floranda, Mimi Doringo, Jocelyn Andamo, Ronnel Arambulo, Danilo Ramos, Teddy Casiño, Jerome Adonis, Amirah Lidasan, ACT Academics Consultant France Castro, and Gabriela Consultant Arlene Brosas.
Socialist labor leaders Leody de Guzman and Luke Espiritu have additionally thrown their hats into the ring as soon as extra. Transport chief Mario “Mar” Valbuena is in search of a 2025 Senate seat, too.
Senate graduates
5 senators are set to “graduate” in 2025 after serving two consecutive six-year phrases or 12 years in workplace.
Within the present roster of senators, Cynthia Villar, Grace Poe, Nancy Binay, and Aquilino Pimentel III will finish their time period on June 30, 2025. Senator Sonny Angara was going to “graduate” in 2025, however he was appointed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as training secretary even earlier than his time period expired. Angara formally assumed the place on July 19. He resigned as senator on July 16.
Villar is working for Las Piñas consultant, whereas Binay and Pimentel are working for Makati mayor and Marikina consultant, respectively. Poe mentioned that she is taking a break from politics however has declared that she could be keen to simply accept a Cupboard position if supplied. – Rappler.com
