While more than 18,000 positions were at stake at all levels of government, it was the senatorial election – 12 out of 24 positions were up for grabs – that attracted most of the political and media attention. The upper house plays a strategic role in determining the partisan balance in the run-up to the 2028 presidential elections.

The Philippine political system is dominated by dynastic and oligarchic logics, in which power relations between families prevail over ideological cleavages and substantive debates. The two “ruling” families, represented by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (son of the former dictator of the same name) and Vice President Sara Duterte (daughter of the previous President Rodrigo Duterte), have been in open conflict since the implosion of the opportunistic alliance they formed for the 2022 presidential elections. In this context, the mid-term elections have become a referendum in disguise for the domination of one camp or the other. 

From the very first days of the campaign, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who enjoys a solid partisan base in Congress but limited popular support, dramatized the electoral stakes by presenting it as a choice between the “dark days” of Rodrigo Duterte’s regime (2016-2022) and the promise of a “new Philippines”, and called on voters to reject his predecessor’s authoritarian and divisive style of government.  The latter quickly counter-attacked, denouncing the government’s inability to contain inflation, while accusing the president of being a heroin addict. 

The campaign quickly moved into a critical phase following Sara Duterte’s impeachment vote on February 7 in the House of Representatives, which will have to be confirmed by the Senate, followed by Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest on March 11 and extradition to The Hague, where he now awaits trial on charges of crimes against humanity, committed as part of his war on drugs. 

The presidential administration has presented a list of 12 senatorial candidates,  united under the banner of the Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas (Alliance for a New Philippines). Formed in May 2024 with a view to the 2025 elections, this alliance brings together Marcos’ Partido Federal ng Pilipinas and Romualdez’s Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), as well as three other parties also controlled by powerful political dynasties. Alyansa thus brings together the country’s dominant forces, and at the start of the campaign, it established itself as a hegemonic player on the Philippine political landscape. 

In opposition, the Duterte clan has put forward a senatorial list of ten candidates, the “Duter10”, including two pillars of the former regime: Bong Go, Rodrigo Duterte’s close advisor and right-hand man, and Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, a central figure in the repressive apparatus during the war on drugs.