Duterte allies seek Senate reelection

REELECTIONIST Senators Ronald “Bato” M. dela Rosa and Christopher Lawrence “Bong” T. Go, friends and allies of former President Rodrigo R. Duterte, are seeking extension of their terms as they formalized their bids for the 2025 midterm polls.

Mr. Dela Rosa, who served as a Mr. Duterte’s police chief, and Mr. Go, former Special Assistant to the President, filed their certificates of candidacy (CoC) on Thursday at the Manila Hotel, under the endorsement of the former chief executive.

The May 2025 elections will be a litmus test of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.’s popularity and a chance to consolidate power and groom a successor, which the influential Duterte family has signaled it is determined to stop after an acrimonious falling out.

Though 317 seats in the House of Representatives and thousands of regional and city posts are up for grabs among 18,000 positions, the attention is on 12 spots in the 24-seat Senate, a high-profile chamber with outsized influence and typically stacked with political heavyweights.

Mr. Dela Rosa, often regarded as the chief architect of Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs when he was police chief, said he would continue his advocacy for peace and order, and national defense. He would also lobby for mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.

“I will continue my fight against illegal drugs and criminality, and for national defense and security, we will situate that our national defense posture should be credible enough against foreign invaders,” he told reporters after filing his CoC.

The war on drugs is currently under probe by the International Criminal Court due to the thousands of extralegal killings between 2016 and 2022, most of whom were urban poor. The former police chief said he received calls from the tribunal but admitted he is ignoring the court.

Health and food security will continue taking center stage among the platforms of Mr. Go, who is the current chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography. He is also the main proponent of the Malasakit Centers program.

When asked if Davao City Mayor Sebastian Z. Duterte would run for Senate, Mr. Go said the Filipinos should just wait and see until the last day of filing on Oct. 8, Monday.

Under the same banner, film star Philip Mikael R. Salvador also filed his CoC for a senatorial seat.  Mr. Salvador said he would also push for peace and order in the upper chamber if he won.

Among his platforms include allowing drug addicts to undergo rehabilitation, but clarified he is not against Mr. Duterte’s deadly war on drugs. In 2016, he tried to run as vice governor of Bulacan but was excluded from the voters’ list days before the local polls. 

In a September 2024 Social Weather Stations survey, Senators Dela Rosa and Go fell to the 11^th to 13^th spot from their March 2024 ranking of 5^th, and 10^th to 11^th, respectively. The SWS poll showed admin-endorsed candidates dominated the list of 12 preferred senatorial prospective candidates.

MARCOS ALLIES TAKE LEAD
A separate public opinion poll, likewise, showed politicians allied to the Marcos administration dominated the so-called Magic 12 for next year’s Senate race in the latest issue of the Philippine Public Opinion Monitor, conducted by WR Numero Research.

ACT-CIS Rep. Erwin T. Tulfo, who is running for senator under a coalition led by President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., topped the September 2024 survey.

He was followed by former Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III with 39.3% and radio personality Bienvenido T. Tulfo with 36.1%.

They were followed by former President Duterte with 32.4%, Sen. Pilar Juliana “Pia” S. Cayetano with 30.4%, former senator Emmanuel “Manny” D. Pacquiao with 30.2%, and Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Jr. with 29.3%, who were all tied at ranks 4^th to 7^th.

Also among those that could potentially win a senate seat were former senator Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson (24.4%), Senator Maria Imelda Josefa Remedios R. Marcos (23.7%), Mr. Dela Rosa (23.2%), former senator Francis Pancratius “Kiko” N. Pangilinan (23.1%), and Senator Manuel “Lito” Lapid (22.3%), who ranked 8^th to 12^th.

Meanwhile, cardiologist Willie T. Ong and Senator Go closely trail in 13^th (21.9%) and 14^th (21.5%) places, down from their 11^th (25.6%), and 9^th (29.5%) spots in the March 2024 survey, respectively.

The September poll saw Mr. Ben Tulfo, brother of the most preferred senate bet, enter the top three. Mr. Lapid also broke into the top 12 after ranking 17^th in March with 22%.

The poll was conducted a month before the filing of certificate of candidacies for the midterm elections next year.

Six of the people in the Magic 12 are part of the Marcos-led Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas such as Mr. Tulfo of ACT-CIS, Mr. Sotto, Ms. Cayetano, Mr. Pacquiao, Mr. Revilla, and Mr. Lapid. Mr. Lacson and Ms. Marcos, who were initially part of the list endorsed by the President, decided to run as independent candidates.

Only Mr. Pangilinan of the Liberal Party was able to enter the lineup among opposition personalities.

Major opposition groups such as the Liberal Party and Koalisyong Makabayan earlier told BusinessWorld that they would not, in any way, build bridges with the opposition-posturing movement of Mr. Duterte, whose six-year term was marked by activist killings and deaths under his bloody anti-drugs campaign.

The survey was conducted from Sept. 5 to 23 with a sample of 1,729 adults aged 18 and older. It has a margin of error of ± 2% at a 95% confidence level. At the subnational level, the margin of error is ± 6% for the National Capital Region, ± 5% for North and Central Luzon, ± 5% for South Luzon, ± 6% for Visayas, and ± 5% for Mindanao, all at the same 95% confidence level. — Chloe Mari A. Hufana and Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza