Marcos-Duterte feud raises stakes in midterm elections

Rivals look to add allies in Senate, where V-P faces impeachment trial

- Mara Cepeda

In crowded streets across the Philippines, catchy campaign jingles have started to blare from speakers placed on top of jeepneys passing through neighborhoods filled with posters of smiling candidates.

But beyond the usual fanfare and frenzy at the start of the midterm election season on Feb 11, a deeper political war is brewing.

The once-vaunted alliance between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and Vice-President Sara Duterte has crumbled. Ms Duterte last week was impeached by Mr Marcos' allies for threatening to assassinate him and misusing millions worth of public funds.

That political drama has turned the May 12 midterms, particularly the Senate race, into a high-stakes contest for control between the nation's two most powerful dynastic clans.

Up for grabs are more than 18,000 seats nationwide in the polls held every three years.

Filipinos will vote for 12 out of 24 Senate seats while the rest will be contested in the next midterm. There are also more than 300 congressmen and thousands of local officials in every province, city and town contesting the election.

It would be crucial for Mr Marcos to pack the Senate with more allies, as the Chamber is set to turn itself into an impeachment court that will conduct a trial, likely in July, on Ms Duterte's alleged offences. Only a conviction by a two-third vote of the Senate would officially remove Ms Duterte from her post.

Otherwise, she would survive the ouster attempt, and her senator allies can derail Mr Marcos' policy agenda in the last three years of his term, which ends in 2028.

The campaign period officially started on Feb 11 for the country's bicameral Congress, including the senatorial bets and representatives of sectoral groups vying for 63 allotted seats in the House of Representatives. Local officials begin campaigning in March.