Millions of citizens participated in the midterm polls across the Philippines on Monday, a plebiscite in which incarcerated former president Rodrigo Duterte was among the aspirants competing for approximately 18,000 legislative and municipal posts, and in which domestic news outlets depicted President Marcos Jr. completing and depositing his ballot in Batac City, Ilocos Norte.

Captured within this photographic document, disseminated by the Presidential Communications Office, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., centrally positioned, conspicuously displays the indelible ink adorning his digit subsequent to the submission of his ballot at an electoral precinct situated in Batac City, Ilocos Norte province, Philippines, on the aforementioned date of Monday, May 12, 2025.

In a poignant display of democratic participation, an individual is captured in the act of casting their vote at a designated polling precinct in Quezon City, Philippines, on the calendared date of Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Basilio Sepe)

On Monday, May 12, 2025, the citizenry of Quezon City, Philippines, fulfilled their electoral obligations by exercising their franchise at a designated polling station. (AP Photo/Basilio Sepe)

Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte is captured in a moment of animated gesticulation whilst addressing the media during a press conference, having just exercised her franchise at a polling station in Davao City, southern Philippines, on Monday, May 12, 2025.

In this image furnished by Team Pacquiao, Manny Pacquiao, the Filipino boxing luminary and erstwhile senator, displays the indelible mark upon his digit subsequent to exercising his franchise at Kiamba Central Elementary School in Kiamba, Sarangani province, situated in the southern Philippines, on Monday, May 12, 2025.

Penned by TERESA CEROJANO

Notwithstanding his detention in The Hague, former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte numbered among those individuals competing for a portion of the approximately 18,000 national and local offices contested in Monday's midterm elections, an electoral event widely regarded by political analysts as pivotal in determining the enduring political ascendancy of both himself and his family.

Since March, Duterte has been held in International Criminal Court custody, facing trial for crimes against humanity stemming from a brutal war on illicit drugs that resulted in the deaths of thousands of suspects during his 2016-2022 presidency, a circumstance that has not, however, deterred him from pursuing the mayoral office in his southern Davao City stronghold.

Pursuant to Philippine statutory provisions, individuals subject to criminal indictment, notwithstanding their custodial status, retain eligibility for electoral candidature unless a final judgment of conviction, no longer amenable to further judicial review, has been rendered against them.

Duterte is preponderantly anticipated to secure victory as Davao mayor, a capacity he occupied for upwards of two decades prior to acceding to the presidency; the practicalities of his potential tenure as mayor from carceral confinement remain decidedly opaque.

Exceeding 68 million, the Filipino electorate was enfranchised to participate in Monday's poll, selecting half of the 24-strong senatorial body, the entirety of the 317-seat House of Representatives, and a multitude of sub-national administrative roles spanning provinces, cities, and municipalities.

The polls concluded their operations at 7 p.m. local time; however, enfranchised individuals still queueing in certain precincts were nonetheless permitted to exercise their suffrage. Election officials intimated that preliminary tallies might be ascertainable within scant hours, whereas the formal certification of results was slated for dissemination within a week's timeframe.

Central to the ongoing political drama is the highly consequential Senate race, which could prove pivotal in shaping the political trajectory of Vice President Sara Duterte, daughter of former President Duterte. Her political fortunes hang precariously in the balance as she confronts an impending impeachment trial in the Senate this July, stemming from grave accusations of her alleged complicity in an assassination plot against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and systemic corruption purportedly involving her office's intelligence funds. She has vehemently repudiated these charges, attributing their dissemination to the machinations of her political adversaries intent on orchestrating her downfall.

Sara Duterte is widely regarded as a formidable aspirant for the 2028 presidential contest; however, a potential conviction by the Senate would necessitate her removal from the vice presidency and result in a permanent proscription from public service, contingent upon securing the affirmative votes of at least nine of the twenty-four senators to achieve exoneration.

“The forthcoming 2025 midterm elections will prove pivotal, as their outcome will decisively delineate the trajectory for subsequent political developments and determine which familial dynasty or political faction will ultimately predominate in the 2028 electoral contest,” posited Maria Ela Atienza, a luminary in political science at the esteemed University of the Philippines.

The potential conviction of Sara Duterte in the impeachment proceedings could presage a terminal decline in the Duterte family's hegemonic grip on pivotal national offices, she posited.

The electoral landscape reveals further familial entanglements, with Rodrigo Duterte's youngest scion, Sebastian, the prevailing mayor of Davao and widely anticipated to secure the vice mayoral post, alongside his elder son, Paolo, endeavoring to retain his seat in the House of Representatives.

Additionally, two grandsons are contesting local constituencies.

The impeachment proceedings against Rodrigo Duterte, culminating in his apprehension and rendition to the International Criminal Court at The Hague, transpired subsequent to the dissolution of the alliance between Marcos and Sara Duterte, a rupture precipitated by irreconcilable political divergences and vying aspirations for power.

Monday witnessed Sara Duterte exercising her franchise in Davao, whereas Marcos cast his ballot in his northern hometown of Batac City.

Addressing the assembled journalists subsequent to depositing her vote, she unequivocally declared her preparedness to defer to the sovereign determination of the electorate, even in the eventuality that the candidates she had endorsed failed to secure electoral victory.

"In the context of her father’s anticipated victory, she articulated, 'Undoubtedly, he will be absent from this locale; our projection posits that the vice mayor (Sebastian) shall assume the capacity of acting mayor.'"

On the cusp of the election, Marcos, through a video communiqué, had exhorted Filipinos to exercise their franchise and ensure their collective voice was unequivocally heard.

Her father's spiritual confidante and close political confederate, televangelist Apollo Quiboloy, is likewise vying for a senatorial mandate notwithstanding his current detention on charges of egregious sexual abuse and human trafficking, while simultaneously being sought by authorities in the United States on comparable accusations.

The electoral process has been regrettably blemished by sporadic outbursts of brutality; noteworthy incidents include a fatal shooting in Silay City, central Philippines, resulting in two fatalities and seven injuries, a lethal exchange of gunfire between partisans of rival mayoral hopefuls in the southern New Corella municipality, claiming two lives and injuring two others, and a series of putative election-linked shootings in southern Basilan, which tragically left seven deceased, alongside multiple other casualties sustained in similar altercations across the nation.

Internecine conflicts among adherents of competing candidacies also impeded the electoral process in a number of constituencies. In Manila, some enfranchised individuals voiced grievances regarding the omission of their names from the official register in their respective precincts. Others expressed their dissatisfaction with the protracted queuing under oppressive thermal conditions.

According to Reymark Marquez, a constituent, the alliance of Marcos and Duterte, which emerged victorious in the 2022 electoral contest, has been remiss in the fulfillment of its pledges; he posits that the forthcoming midterm polls transcend the binary of Duterte versus Marcos, fundamentally concerning the discerning selection of appropriate leadership.

"What I believe is fundamentally at stake in this electoral contest is the trajectory of the forthcoming generation," articulated Diana Joy Acosta, a 32-year-old recent entrant into motherhood, subsequent to the solemn act of casting her ballot within a scholastic institution situated in the metropolitan expanse of Manila's Mandaluyong City. Driven by a profound desideratum for her infant's future, she ardently anticipates the cessation of systemic venality and the ascension of political personages imbued with unimpeachable probity.