Marcos Senate bets to court Duterte bailiwick in Mindanao

NORTHERN LAUNCH President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. sets the campaign of the Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas ticket in motion from Laoag City on Feb. 11, 2025. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

MANILA, Philippines — The senatorial slate backed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will court the bailiwick of the Duterte family, who have become the present administration’s arch-rivals.

The Alyansa sa Bagong Pilipinas will kick off the Mindanao leg of its campaign in Davao del Norte on Saturday.

Navotas City Rep. Toby Tiangco, Alyansa’s campaign manager, is banking on the fact that Marcos won there by a landslide in the 2022 elections with Vice President Sara Duterte as his running mate.

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“Just as they stood behind PBBM (President Bongbong Marcos), we believe our Mindanaoan brothers and sisters will back our Senate slate, which shares his vision for progress,” Tiangco said in a statement.

Marcos Senate bets include Senate reelectionists Pia Cayetano, Imee Marcos, Lito Lapid, Bong Revilla, and Francis Tolentino; former senators Vicente Sotto III, Panfilo Lacson, and Manny Pacquiao; House lawmakers Deputy Speaker Camille Villar and ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo; former Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos; and Makati City Mayor Abby Binay.

The proclamation rally for Marcos Senate bets kicked off in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte last Feb. 11, marking the start of the 90-day campaign period.

Marcos, who led the alliance’s proclamation rally, unleashed a thinly-veiled salvo of attacks against his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte.

The Chief Executive, who made a pitch for the 12-member Alyansa, said these senatorial candidates are not “tainted by the blood” of drug war which killed thousands, did not profess pro-China and pro-Philippine offshore gaming operators sentiments, among other social ills, as opposed to the nine-man slate backed by the former president.

READ: Marcos on admin slate: They’re not tainted by tokhang, Pogo, pro-China

Once allies during the 2022 polls, the political families Marcos and Duterte have been embroiled in a tussle marked by the vice president’s resignation in the present administration’s Cabinet as education secretary in June last year.

The feud has since escalated, with Duterte revealing that she allegedly instructed someone to kill Marcos, his wife Liza, and cousin Romualdez if she would be killed.

Duterte’s remarks was used as one of the reasons behind her impeachment complaint, first signed by Presidential son and Ilocos Norte 1st District Rep. Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos.

READ: Rep. Marcos on signing Sara Duterte impeach rap first: No surprise

Marcos said his move was prompted by the vice president’s threats to his family and her remarks to dig up late president Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s remains before throwing it to the West Philippine Sea.