Result of Phlippines election: votes are in

As the noise and color of a two-month election campaign disappear, a game of thrones between the two most powerful families in the Philippines resumes.

President Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr. and its deputy chairman Sarah Duterte are involved in a bitter feud and a battle for power.

As allies, they won a landslide victory in the last 2022 presidential election.

But as their relationship was destroyed – he accused her of threatening to kill him, she accuses him of incompetence and said she dreams of beheading him – these medium -term elections have become a critical barometer of the power of these two political dynasties.

And the results There were no great news about the Markos camp. Usually, the current presidents in the Philippines receive most of their Senate elections selected in the medium-term elections. The power of presidential patronage is a significant advantage, at least it was in the past.

But not this time.

Only six of the twelve winning senators are from the Alliance Marcos, and from those, Camille Villar, is only half in his camp, as she also accepted approval by Sarah Duterte.

Four of the senators are in the Duterte camp, including the sister of President Marcos. Two were in the first three winners in the vote before each candidate for Marcos.

For a sitting president, this is a bad result.

Senators are selected on a simple, national vote, which is a good indication of national opinion. The result can weaken the authority of the Marcos administration in the last three years of his term, and he questioned the plan for disabling Sarah Duterte by impeaching it.

The Marcos-Duterte relationship has been deteriorating almost since the start of their administration three years ago. But it wasn’t until this year was completely torn.

The decision of the president’s allies in the congress to start the Vice President of the Vice President was the first irreparable violation.

Then in March President Marcos sent Sarah’s father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, to The International Criminal Court should be filed against charges against humanity against humanity over his brutal war against drugs. Police have also filed criminal charges against her.

The gloves were excluded. The impeachment would lead to Sarah Duterte was prohibited by public office, ending her ambition to replace President Marcos in the next election.

At the moment, she is the gable and a little doubt that if they succeed, she would use the power of the Presidency to seek revenge against Marcos.

But the impeachment requires two -thirds of the Senate in 24 places to vote for it, which is why these medium -term elections matter so much to the two camps.

Politics in the Philippines is a family business. After a family achieves political power, it behaves on it and betrays it around different generations.

As long as there are about 200 influential families, Duthers and Marcosi sit at the top of the pyramid.

Marcos have been in politics for 80 years. The current president’s father spoke from 1965 to 1986, imposing martial law and degrading billions of dollars from the national bag.

Bongball Marcos’ mother, Imelda, who at the age of 95 voted in these elections from a wheelchair, is Even more famous figurenot just for her Shoe collectionS

His sister Imee is re -elected to the Senate, thanks to his decision to defect in the Duterte camp.

His largest son Sandro is a congressman, and his cousin Martin Romualdes is the chairman of the lower house and the likely presidential candidate in 2028 – probably the reason for Bongby Marcos that was so wishing to push through the impeach of Sarah Duteter.

In President Ilokos’ home province, Norte his wife’s cousin was elected governor, his nephew, selected as deputy guerrilla and two other cousins ​​elected as urban advisers. Above, marcos always win.

It is almost the same for Dutnertes in their fortress in the other end of the country.

Even from his prison cell in The Hague, former President Duterte run for mayor of Daoo and win easily, although all the voters had to see him was a size card.

However, his absence would not matter, because the previous mayor was his son Sebastian, who is now taking over the work of a deputy mayor. Duthers are mayors of Dao for 34 of the last 37 years.

The problem that both camps face is that senators also usually come from large political families or are celebrities in themselves – many candidates come from media or exhibition origin.

They have their own interests and ambitions. Even if they officially allied with one or the other camp, there is no guarantee that they will remain loyal, especially on the issue of impeachment.

“The Senators in the Philippines are very sensitive to national public opinion because they imagine themselves as vice -presidents or chairmen who are waiting,” says Cleve Arsels, a political scientist who runs a study by WR Numero, which monitors public opinion.

“So, they always try to read the public mind and deal with public opinion because of their future political ambitions.”

In recent months, public sentiment has not been on the president’s side.

Bongball Marcos has never been a good public speaker, and his stage performances in the campaign did not make a little to raise their popularity.

His management of the economy, which is struggling, receives low public opinion studies and his decision to detain former President Duterte and send him to the International Criminal Court is represented by the Duterte family as a national betrayal.

At an impromptu rally in Tondo, a low -income neighborhood in the port zone of Manila, Sarah Duterte played an emotionally loaded video from the moment her father was taken at the Manila International Airport and put a private jaga in the Hague. She presented this as an unforgivable attitude towards a still popular former president.

“Not only did they abduct my father, they stole him from us,” she told the cheerful crowd.

President Marcos’ bigger sister was also on the stage, who disagreed with the extradition and jumped on the ship to the Duterte camp – although most observers look at this as a cynical move to take advantage of the popular support of the Duterte, so it can raise its own campaign to reserve its place.

Works. From the exhibition low through much of the campaign, Imee Marcos managed to escape to Magic Twelve, as the winning senators call it.

What is happening now is difficult to predict, but Marcos’ camp is certainly facing a difficult battle to make Sarah Duterte obstruct.

Of the 24 senators, only a handful are automatically loyal to the president. The rest will have to be convinced to go with him, and this will not be easy.

These elections show that Dutnertes still has very strong public support in some areas, and some of Marcos Election Union has already been recorded, saying that they are opposed to the Vice President’s impeaks. The same applies to the 12 senators who were not for elections this year.

A bright place for the president may be the surprising elections of Senators Bam Aquino and Francis Pangilinan, both of the liberal wing of politics.

Few surveys had foreseen their victories, which suggested a public desire for politicians outside the feud of Marcos-Duter.

No friend of the Marcos-Liberal clan was the main opposition to the Marcos-Duter team in the 2022 election.

But they were strongly opposed to the style of the strong man of former President Duterte and may be afraid of his cheeky daughter to become president in 2028. This may be enough to make them vote for impeachment.

The impeachment process is expected to start in July. Dutnertes can be expected to continue to stop at the battleship of the President in a public place, and the two camps will lobby fiercely behind the scenes to bring senators to their side.

No president or vice president has never been successfully prevented in the Philippines. Neither any president and vice president have ever fallen so bad.

This will be a tumultuous year.