Marcos allies gain early lead in Philippine Senate race amid voting machine controversy

The 2025 race is set to be fiercely contested, with Marcos’ slate of candidates including his sister Imee, who is running as an independent

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Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr appears to have strategically selected his candidates based on their popularity. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:30pm, 6 Oct 2024

As the Philippines gears up for its highly anticipated 2025 senatorial elections, candidates aligned with President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr are expected to dominate the race, according to a poll released on Tuesday – the official start of the week-long candidate filing period.

In these midterm elections, held every three years, voters will choose 12 out of 24 senators, alongside 318 congressmen, 82 governors, 1,634 mayors, and more than 16,000 councillors.

Marcos Jnr unveiled his slate of 12 senatorial candidates on September 26, including two rivals he defeated in the 2022 presidential election: boxer-turned-senator Manny Pacquiao and ex-senator Panfilo Lacson. Also on the list is his politically estranged sister, Senator Imee Marcos.

But Imee, who has voiced public support for Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio, was a no-show at her brother’s Alliance for a New Philippines party convention.

Four days later, she announced her intention to run as an “independent” candidate, “to avoid putting my little brother in an awkward situation … or hurting my friends.”

Senator Imee Marcos, the president’s sister, gestures as she enters the elections commission office in Manila to file her certificate of candidacy on Wednesday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Marcos Jnr appears to have strategically selected his candidates based on their popularity. Nine of his 12 candidates currently lead in the latest Pulse Asia survey, representing five parties within his coalition.