IN my column shortly before the elections, I reprinted a quote attributed to former senator Frank Drilon (which he has denied): "The best evidence of our political system's desperate bankruptcy is the proliferation of actors, actresses and comedians dominating our legislative and executive branches, including the local government units." (Two elections ... MT, May 7, 2025)

Surprisingly, the voters must have heeded his advice as those he named — popular actors, comedians and TV personalities lost. Foremost among these was Sen. Bong Revilla, who lost his seat. Along with radio-TV personality Ben Tulfo, "Pambansang Kamao" Manny Pacquiao and TV host comedian Willie Revillame, who all figured as shoo-ins in pre-election surveys by SWS, Pulse Asia and OCTA — were all eliminated. This says something for the accuracy, credibility and trustworthiness of these surveys. Popular actor Philip Salvador never made good in the surveys. But Sen. Lito Lapid, a Senate nonperformer but an action star, was a tailender — "nakalusot," as they say in the vernacular.

Marcos' strategic folly

There were many surprises to this midterm election. But perhaps the most glaring is the foolish strategy of the Marcos-Araneta-Romualdez camp in timing the exile and incarceration of former president Duterte at The Hague on March 11, 2025, two months prior to the elections. The Alyansa senatorial slate at the beginning of March was riding high with 10 names in the win column with Erwin Tulfo consistently occupying the top slot; only Bong Go and Bato Dela Rosa from the opposition made it to the winning list, in the 9th to 12th slots. It is a measure of President Duterte's residual political influence, and the sympathy votes he provoked that resurrected the lackluster and anemic PDP-Laban candidates. VP Sara's political weight was likewise evident in singling out Camille Villar and Imee Marcos from the Alyansa, effectively adopting them into the fold of the PDP-Laban.

The Iglesia Ni Cristo's (INC) last-minute support for the "sure winners" finalized the opposition's Bong Go, Bato de la Rosa, Marcoleta, Camille Villar and Imee Marcos to the win column; except for Bong Revilla who got away from his plunder case but has not reportedly returned the P124.5 million he kept. Even the touted INC endorsement couldn't carry the miscreant across the winning column.

Reemergence of VP Sara

VP Sara could be the biggest beneficiary of this midterm with her impeachment now practically dead with Senate allies holding more than one-third of the votes needed to avert a guilty verdict. But recently, with her usual arrogance, she said she wanted the trial to proceed as she wanted a "bloodbath."

Sara has shown her clout with her congressional quadcom tormentors; Stella Quimbo, Dan Fernandez, Benny Abante (both involved in quadcom scandal), France Castro, Mark Go and "Caraps" Paduano, losing their own bid for reelection, leaving The House speaker's team in disarray. Romualdez may soon be replaced as speaker — if BBM had the balls. In his defense, Romualdez, through his spokesman deputy speaker David Suarez, declared that about 86 percent of the 215 congressmen who signed the impeachment complaint against the vice president have been reelected — deriding VP Sara's political weight.

The feud between the two political dynasties, Marcos and Duterte, may have precipitated an unintended consequence, with mostly the young voters disgusted with the same old tradpol practiced by these two factions. This change in voting profile attributed to the changing demographics may have emboldened the decimated remnants of the old "yellow army" back in the equation. This propelled Bam Aquino and Kiko Pangilinan to the Senate, former vice president Leni to the mayoralty of Naga and stalwarts Leila de Lima and Chel Diokno to House as party-list representatives to torment the Dutertes. The "pinklawans" are back.

But these singular elections in no way ushered in a certain maturity in the Filipino voters. One swallow does not a summer make. Money still flowed, particularly from the stolen coffers of the 2025 budget — used by the speaker's minions in the scandalous "Ayuda AKAP" program. The politics of personalities still dominate. Qualified candidates, among them Heidi Mendoza, Luke Espiritu, and Sonny Matula, etc. under the present dysfunctional system could never make it.

Undetermined results

Overall, our system is still entrenched deep in tradpol practices where dynasties and their oligarchic allies reign supreme, although results were mixed. The Cebu Garcias, descendants of Pablo Garcia who founded the dynasty upon the political carcasses of the Osmeñas and Cuencos, were obliterated. Yet in Davao City the ascendant Duterte children saw the complete annihilation of the once formidable Castillo-Nograles-Garcia clan, trouncing the late founder Nonoy Garcia's second district. VP Sara revealed that this decades-long alliance unraveled earlier in January 2005 by a "snub" on the Dutertes, forcing the latter to field the candidacy of Omar, a complete unknown but a Duterte grandson.

But in the five Davao provinces BBM's PFP held sway in most governorships. Congressman John Cagas, the only Davao region lawmaker to have voted to impeach VP Sara, got a fresh mandate.

The blame game has started. BBM's special assistant Anton Lagdameo, scion of the once formidable Floirendo-Del Rosario-Garcia clan, could get the axe for mishandling the campaign in BARMM. Except for Lapid, none of Alyansa's 10 senatorial bets won. Also, "Teng" Mangudadatu has accused Lagdameo of practically "pocketing" billions of BARMM funds.

Systemic reforms

This state of affairs will go unchanged unless the underlying systemic dysfunctions protected by the 1987 Constitution are revised. There is a slim chance for constitutional revisions as the three guardians of the Cory Constitution, Bam Aquino, Kiko Pangilinan and Risa Hontiveros will have their say against Robin Padilla, the Senate committee on constitutional revisions chairman who surprisingly is turning out to be the champion of a shift from a unitary-presidential to a federal-parliamentary system. These are advocates of the Centrist Democrats and the original PDP-Laban founded by the late senator Nene Pimentel — captured and perverted by the Deegong in 2016.

With the remnants of the Cory "yellows" confronting the Dutertes and the Marcos-Araneta-Romualdez factions, a tectonic shift in the political firmament may occur once the state of the nation is defined by the lame duck BBM followed by the ICC trial of the Deegong. The second half of this year will be an opportunity for the emerging opposition in the highest echelons of Philippine political leadership to strengthen itself as a third force.

Since traditional politics still rule, we will be drawn to speculations on who will be the next president rather than how the myriad problems of the country are to be solved; poverty alleviation, the disparity between the haves and the have-nots, injustices, and the perversion of the rule of law will be relegated to the backburner. Evidence surfacing on the ICC trial could spell the Deegong's guilt or innocence, a game changer, impacting on his daughter's political fortunes.

Peripheral to the dispensing of justice, this ICC trial could be a telenovela dear to Filipinos, with episodes lasting for years which the Deegong does not have. And his demise, Inshalla, would be the ultimate roll of the dice — for him, for the Marcos-Araneta-Romualdez faction and for the fortunes of his daughter. But nothing towards the upliftment of the Filipino.