The Marcos-Duterte rivalry is heating up. Midterm election results have shaken the Senate, with detained ex-president Duterte winning a local race from ICC custody. His daughter, Sara Duterte, once perceived as a political pariah, is gaining ground despite facing impeachment.
What no political analysts predicted, the results of the 2025 Philippine midterm elections have created a dramatic twist in the country’s political landscape.
Allies of detained former president Rodrigo Duterte showed consolidation of strength in the senate. While several candidates aligned with President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. underperformed, it delivered a stinging blow to the current administration and has ignited a political storm three years ahead of the next presidential election – expected in 2028.
80-year-old Duterte, currently imprisoned at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on charges of crimes against humanity, won the mayoralty of Davao City — his longtime stronghold — in absentia. In what might be one of the most surreal chapters of Philippine politics, a man facing international trial is now an elected public official thousands of miles from home.
The midterms were always going to be a referendum of sorts — not just on Marcos Jr.’s presidency but on the nation’s tolerance for political dynasties, legal controversies, and entrenched loyalties. Yet few anticipated the sheer force with which the Duterte faction would rebound. Senate allies like Christopher “Bong” Go and Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, both staunch defenders of the Duterte brand, topped the polls.
These results have immediate consequences: the Senate is the stage where Vice President Sara Duterte, daughter of the former president, now faces impeachment proceedings stemming from allegations of fund misuse during her tenure in the education department. With the new Senate composition leaning in her favour, her chances of surviving the trial have grown significantly — and with it, her potential to mount a 2028 presidential bid remains alive.
Sara Duterte has called the impeachment a “glorified disqualification,” arguing that it’s politically motivated. “It’s all about 2028,” she said in a press conference, accusing her opponents of being driven by “cash, cocaine, and champagne.”
Just two years ago, the Marcos-Duterte alliance was seen as unbeatable. Bongbong Marcos clinched the presidency in 2022 with Sara Duterte as his running mate. It was a strategic pairing that unified the north and south, the old dictatorship’s nostalgia with the iron-fisted populism of Duterte’s Davao legacy.
But the alliance unravelled quickly.
By mid-2024, Sara had resigned from Marcos’s Cabinet, citing fundamental disagreements. The breakup grew more visible — and personal — as Marcos’s approval ratings began to slide and his sister, Senator Imee Marcos, began distancing herself from his policy decisions. By 2025, the political battlefield had fully formed: the midterms became a proxy war between two rival dynasties, each fielding their own slates and fighting for control of the Senate.
The outcome was a fractured Senate that now reflects not just competing political ideologies, but an escalating dynastic war that is set to dominate the run-up to 2028...to read more click here.