Political analysts characterized the just-concluded May, 2025 midterm elections in various ways.
Several of them said the results were implausible, pointing out the fact that while Bong Go received 26 million votes, and Bato dela Rosa with 20.6 million, Pastor Apollo Quiboloy was way below at 5.5 million votes, and the rest of the Duterte Ten did not make it.
Others saw this election campaign as the “wildest” with the Bongbong Marcos-backed Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas unable to deliver on its promise of a 12-0 results and starting strong in Libertad, Pasay City with an Alyansa 12 and gradually weakening to only 10 candidates most of whom favored campaigning individually and away from BBM’s personal presence.
Most political minds are on the same page in considering the midterm election of any administration as a sort of “referendum” or “report card” of the sitting government.
This reckoning is accurate, as the past political exercise proved to be a nationwide protest vote against Bongbong Marcos, due mainly to his administration’s inability to solve various problems in Philippine society that make the poor wallow deeper into poverty. Note the list: high cost of food, rent, electricity, transport, education and medical care; corruption in the much vilified ayuda system; floods and other natural disasters where government presence is lacking, runaway inflation, national security issues emanating from the President’s full pivot to the United States and discarding independent foreign policy, the rash of crimes such as drug trafficking and substance abuse, kidnapping, violent street crimes including robbery.
With the way Bongbong-endorsed senatorial candidates fared, it appears that President Marcos has lost much of the political capital he very luckily held after winning the presidency under the Uniteam with Sara Duterte. Sadly, that seems like ages ago.
Senatorial race
The senatorial race in 2025 ended up this way: Bong Go, Bam Aquino, Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, Erwin Tulfo, Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan and Rodante Marcoleta for the first six.
Rounding out the last six are Panfilo Lacson, Tito Sotto, Pia Cayetano, Camille Villar, Lito Lapid and Imee Marcos.
Just outside the winning circle are Ben Bitag Tulfo, and Bong Revilla Ramon Revilla.
Interestingly, VP Sara was initially disappointed on the outcome of the vote, informing her father so, perhaps since she was confident that their straight vote call of DuterTen Plus 2 had been widely disseminated and supported by their camp.
Bongbong Marcos was both sad and disappointed too, for obvious reasons, for two of the winners deserted the Alyansa before the elections, and one of them was his sister.
The midterm elections were doubly important for the Marcos and Duterte camps because first, these were a prelude to the real political battle for the presidency in 2028, and second, the impeachment issue against Vice President Sara Duterte.
For Sara, ensuring that a majority of the senators are with her will give her peace of mind, hoping that the impeachment trial which is scheduled to begin in July will acquit her.
Apropos her endorsements, VP Sara’s campaign in favor of Imee Marcos and Camille Villar proved decisive in their winning the elections. Especially for Imee, leaving the Alyansa and using her position as chairwoman of the Senate committee on foreign relations which investigated the arrest and alleged kidnapping of Digong Duterte were master strokes in her campaign.
Romualdez, Tiangco shamed
The 2025 elections saw the demise of many political names and brands, the failure of the much touted “organization” as political strength, traditional concepts such as pre-election surveys and analyses, and money politics.
House Speaker Martin Romualdez’ credibility suffered some more, as he promised to deliver for his cousin’s Alyansa his home region of Leyte and Samar, but failed even in his home city of Tacloban.
Toby Tiangco, the Alyansa’s campaign manager, even outranked Martin Romualdez in the embarrassment department when Duterte candidates clinched the top 5 in his native Navotas.
Most telling of Bongbong’s failures was in Cebu, where his long-time friend and supporter Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia was so shocked she did not know what hit her. Pamela Baricuatro, an avid Digong Duterte supporter, trounced Garcia in a fair electoral fight. And this, even after Bongbong Marcos risked his political sanity by going against the legal and legitimate order of the Office of the Ombudsman to suspend Governor Garcia, the mother of his tourism secretary.
Bloodbath for celebrities
The results of the elections proved other theories and concepts, among them that the electorate is now composed mostly of young voters, and again they showed their political strength as a voting bloc by voting for Bam Aquino and Francis Pangilinan.
This nascent political mindset is also apparent in the considerable high totals for candidates Heidi Mendoza and Luke Espiritu. The same mindset is apparent in the clinching of the top position by Akbayan in the party-list race.
More important is the dwindling and fading bandwagon votes for celebrities, mostly from the movies and television. The humiliating loss of Willie Revillame is a case in point, and both showbiz and the nation at large come out better after this failure.
Another classic example is Manny Pacquiao, who failed to leverage his boxing fame in yet another bid to return to the Senate.
The failed bids by Revillame, Pacquiao, and Phillip Salvador are good for another political analysis.
Meantime, it is ridiculous that Sen. Francis “Tol” Tolentino capitalized on his illusion that the Filipino voters care enough on the South China Sea or West Philippine Sea issues in deciding on whose senatoriable’s name to shade.
Tol should realize that the masses are concerned with gut issues of food and shelter before all else, and or not knowing this, he had to be an ex senator by June 30, and sadly join the ranks of also-rans, the 25th down the line.
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