The mid-term elections in the Philippines held on Monday, May 12, have reshaped political affiliations in the archipelago, with its 115 million inhabitants, where politics is less about parties, whose membership fluctuates, and more about which family dynasty dominates at any given moment. Monday's general elections, which were due to elect the 317 members of the country's House of Representatives and half of its 24 senators, as well as tens of thousands of local officials, were a battle of titans: They pit President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, the son of the Philippine dictator Marcos, who was elected in 2022, against his former populist allies, a bloc aligned with former president Rodrigo Duterte (2016-2022). Duterte, meanwhile, has been incarcerated at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, since March 12, on charges of crimes against humanity that he allegedly committed in the "war on drugs" he waged during his term in office.
Preliminary results indicated that the Dutertes have not only withstood the shock of their family patriarch's arrest, but that it might serve to rally supporters in their favor: The former president, aged 80, was elected, from his prison cell, as mayor of Davao City, the major urban center on the island of Mindanao in the south of the Philippines – his 8th elected office in 37 years. The abuses Duterte committed against his opponents in Davao City, under the guise of fighting drug trafficking, before he won the presidency in 2016 feature prominently in the judges' files in The Hague. Yet the family stronghold still seems impregnable today: His son, Sebastien Duterte, the incumbent mayor, was elected as the city's vice mayor. Another of Duterte's sons and a grandson will represent districts of Davao City in the House. Philippine electoral rules only allow individuals to serve three consecutive three-year mayoral terms, so members of the Duterte family have been alternating in this position since 1988.
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