MANILA, Philippine — At Club Filipino in San Juan City on Thursday, February 13, it was as if someone had turned back the hands of time.
A long line snaked from the main entrance of Kalayaan Hall to the open-air dining area, as throngs of people wearing shirts with different campaign colors and candidate names emblazoned across their chest and backs tried to get to the hall first. After a couple of hours of figuring out table assignments and senatorial campaign speeches, the crowd inside the jampacked Kalayaan Hall would chant in unison: “Pilipinas, Duterte pa rin (Philippines, Duterte still)!”
In this pocket of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte is a “beloved former president” whose influence continues to permeate through the electorate. It’s this popularity and political clout that his nine-person Senate slate hopes to capture as they kicked off the 90-day campaign period in the 2025 midterm elections.
“[Duterte’s endorsement is] very valuable dahil marami pa rin taong naniniwala at nagsusuporta sa ating former president (because of a lot of people still believe in and support the former president),” Senator Ronald dela Rosa, Duterte’s former police chief who first led his bloody drug war, told reporters before the program started. Dela Rosa placed fifth in his first Senate ever run in 2019, which was also his first elective post.
Throughout the program — which almost promptly started at 3 pm but ended way past schedule at around 9:30 pm — Duterte’s candidates made their case for deserving a seat in the Senate. They also made their case against the Philippines under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., including the bombastic speech of Vic Rodriguez, Marcos’ first and then disgraced executive secretary, against his former boss.
But as in all events with Rodrigo Duterte in it, it was the former president who stole the show.
For over an hour, Duterte flitted from prepared talk points to his usual anecdotes and asides — including a tangent accusing Marcos of drug use, “joking” about killing 15 senators so his Senate bets could all make it to the upper chamber, and the back story of how he met his 2016 campaign manager and former cabinet secretary Jun Evasco.
But if there was at least one point where Duterte was dead serious and focused, it was in lambasting Marcos, the erstwhile ally of his eldest daughter Vice President Sara Duterte.
Marcos, the man who in 2021 Duterte had described as a “weak leader,” was not doing a good job as President, said Duterte. Marcos and his government has “fallen short,” the former Davao mayor said.
The Filipino’s gut issues
Duterte, early in his speech whittled his and his slate’s campaign pitch down to three issues: food prices, jobs, and security.
“Kung mas mababa ang presyo ngayon ng pagkain, eh ‘di iboto natin ang kandidato niya. Ngayon, kung mas madali maghanap ng trabaho ngayon sa panahon niya, then doon ka sa kanya, doon sa administrasyon. Kung sa panahon na ito kampante ka maglakad na walang takot, nakakapagpasyal ka maski saan, eh ‘wag mo na bitiwan si Marcos, piliin mo ang kandidato niya,” he said.
(If the price of food is lower now, then vote for his candidates. If it’s easier to find jobs now under him, then go to him, choose the administration. If nowadays you feel safe walking around without fear, if you’re able to go wherever you want, then don’t let go of Marcos, choose his candidates.)
The crowd erupted in cheers for Duterte and jeers for Marcos.
“Pero ‘pag sinasabi ko, nag-gaganyan ako (But when I say this and I do this),” said Duterte, gesturing at the nine senatorial bets behind him. “Ibig sabihin ito ‘yung kapalit (That means they are the alternatives).”
Two of the three issues are among those cited by Filiipinos as the most urgent matters that the government should address.
According to a Pulse Asia survey held from November 26 to December 3, 2024, controlling inflation (74%), increasing the pay of workers (36%), reducing the poverty of many Filipinos (31%), and creating more jobs (27%) were the top four concerns. A distant fifth was addressing the problem of involuntary hunger (17%), followed by fighting criminality (15%), and promoting peace in the country (14%).
Marcos, as a 2022 presidential candidate, promised to bring down rice prices to P20 per kilo.
Three years in, the promise is but a distant reality, even as the government has declared a food security emergency on rice.
Suddenly turning humble, the 79-year-old Duterte said: “Hindi ko sinasabi na kaya natin kung tayo ang nandiyan sa Malacañang. It’s not that easy. I have been there. But ito, the guy is simply taking his time to come up with the solution to the problem.”
(I’m not saying that I would be able to solve this if I were in Malacañang. It’s not that easy. I have been there. But this guy is simply taking his time to come up with the solution to the problem.)
“Medyo hirap sila, ewan ko kung bakit. Mukhang hindi niya kaya na habulin ang presyo. ‘Yan na lang sa pagkain (They’re having a hard time, and I don’t know why. I don’t think they’ll be able to control prices. We’re just talking about food here),” he added.
Marcos vs Duterte
There is method to the madness of Duterte’s hour-long speech, among the few he has made since stepping down from Malacañang. After all, food and jobs are top issues based on surveys.
But criminality and security? Those are Duterte’s pet issues — among those that propelled him to an overwhelming win in 2016. Duterte’s presidential campaign was anchored on the promise of ending criminality in three to six months, which failed to deliver.
Based on the results of a December 2015 Pulse Asia survey, the most urgent national concerns saw “fighting criminality” as the fifth top issue with 25% of respondents saying it was urgent — a figure unchanged from the September 2015 version of the survey. By December 2016, or six months into Duterte’s presidency, “fighting criminality” had risen to the 4th most urgent national concern, with 33% saying it was important.
The “war on drugs,” after all, was Duterte’s biggest and more bombastic of 2016 campaign promises. Nine years later, his successor, Marcos, has turned it into campaign issue against his Senate slate’s rivals in 2025.
Speaking before a crowd of loyal supporters in Laoag City on February 11, Marcos sought to hype up his 12-person slate by pointing out that none of them had their hands bloodied from Oplan Tokhang, applauded China, or benefitted from corruption during the COVID-19 pandemic.
If Marcos painted the 2025 elections as a choice between the present and going back to a pro-China, pro-Tokhang past, Duterte wants the polls to be a referendum on the Marcos administration’s performance.
If Duterte — who no longer has the bully pulpit of Malacañang — can control the 2025 narrative, it could spell trouble for the Marcos-backed Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas. After all, 82% of those surveyed in the November to December 2024 Pulse Asia survey disapproved of how the Marcos administration was controlling inflation.
Curiously, Duterte did not mention one issue that doesn’t appear in surveys but will surely shadow the 2025 polls: the impeachment of his daughter Sara, the Vice President.
But his candidates did highlight the importance of electing their slate to the Senate because of a possible impeachment trial. Vice President Duterte needs at least eight votes to be acquitted, and spared from ouster and a ban from public office.
Reality check
In almost all of their campaign speeches, Duterte’s candidates tried to make a thing of Marcos’ February 11 quip — that the rivals of the administration coalition bets were unqualified.
“Kaya naman nakita — nagtataka nga ako parang ‘yung mga iba na naging kandidato eh nag-deliver lang yata ng suka eh nabigyan na ng certificate of candidacy dahil…walang ikukumpara sa ating mga kandidato” said Marcos at the first of his slate’s proclamation rallies across the country.
(I wonder because the other candidates seem like they were just asked to buy vinegar then suddenly got certificates of candidates because…well they do not compare to our candidates.)
In the Philippines, such a description — someone who was just asked to buy vinegar — refers to inexperience.
Duterte’s candidates took their turns spinning Marcos’ suka remark — from taking pride in once having to sell vinegar to get to talking about how vinegar makes dried fish, a staple in Filipino households, taste better. At several points, candidates and program hosts led the crowd in cheering “suka.”
Team Suka — as the Duterte candidates sometimes dubbed themselves — simply cannot get by through wisecracks and anecdotes. Of the nine, only the two reelectionists — Dela Rosa and longtime Duterte aide Bong Go — are “winnable,” according to a January 2025 preference survey by Pulse Asia.
The closest to the winning circle was action star Phillip Salvador, a Duterte loyalist, who ranked 19-21 in the survey with a 19.3% preference rating. SAGIP Representative Rodante Marcoleta, Jimmy Bondoc, Apollo Quiboloy, Rodriguez, Raul Lambino, and Jayvee Hinlo are trailing way behind in the same surveys.
In contrast, the Marcos’ slate, which Duterte painted as a vote for a government that cannot deliver, 10 out of 12 candidates are top ranked in preference surveys.
To Duterte’s slate and his supporters, the question for 2025 is simple: “Dahil sa mga nangyayari ngayon, may pag-asa pa ba ang Pilipinas? Meron, dahil nandito ngayon ang Team Duterte,” said the proclamation rally’s host.
(Because of what’s happening now, is there hope in the Philippines? There is hope because Team Duterte is here.)
Duterte exited the presidency with trust and approval ratings previously unheard of. Most Philippine presidents simply coast through their last three lameduck years and exit on a sour, if not bittersweet, note.
But three years later, without the once infinite resources and machinery he had at his disposal, will Duterte’s popularity be enough to win them more than two Senate seats? – Rappler.com