Alternative candidates score big gains in polls

Opposition and independent candidates are scoring big gains in the Philippine midterm elections held on Monday, with analysts noting that domestic politics, rising costs of living and controversies over the national budget have weighed on the results.

An estimated 70 million registered voters cast their ballots for candidates that competed for around 18,000 national and local positions — including the posts of 12 senators, 254 district representatives, 63 party-list representatives and some governors, as well as thousands of provincial board members and councilors.

While pre-election surveys showed that administration candidates would dominate the polls, the partial, unofficial election results revealed a different story. Analysts said the arrest and subsequent detention at the International Criminal Court of former president Rodrigo Duterte, the rising cost of living and controversies over the national budget have weighed on the President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.-backed candidates.

Dennis Coronacion, chairman of the political science department at the Manila-based University of Santo Tomas, said the election results showed the Filipino voters "are not very fond of" the current administration.

Young voters

Coronacion also noted that over 60 percent of the Philippine voting population was aged 44 and below — the millennials and the Generation Z. These young and idealistic voters, he said, are fed up with traditional politicians who have been winning elections in the past few years.

"They chose alternative candidates. They have higher standards," Coronacion said, adding that the youth voted on the basis of the candidates' competence and qualifications.

The senatorial elections reaffirmed the declining public support for the current president, while Duterte remains popular. Allies of Leni Robredo, former vice-president, also succeeded in their electoral bid.

Bong Go, who ran for reelection under Duterte's PDP Laban party, is the senatorial race's topnotcher, garnering over 26 million votes.

Bam Aquino, Robredo's former campaign manager, was placed second with over 20 million votes. Another Robredo ally was also poised to win as senator.

Five of the administration-backed senatorial bets are expected to win. However, it was Sara Duterte who endorsed the candidacy of one of these five candidates.

Lucio Blanco Pitlo III, a research fellow at the Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation, said the opposition gained as voters viewed Duterte's arrest as "politically engineered" by the administration.

Duterte, even while detained at The Hague, Netherlands, has drawn a commanding lead in the mayoralty race in Davao City, southern Philippines. Robredo won by a landslide as mayor of Naga City, in the province of Camarines Sur.

Coronacion said Duterte's "magic" is still there and his political machinery is still functioning.

For Anna Rosario Malindog-Uy, vice-president for external affairs at the Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies Institute, there are indications that the current administration "may be facing the situation of a 'lame-duck' presidency", going by the plummeting public support.

Malindog-Uy cited independent pollster Pulse Asia's survey that showed that out of the 2,400 Filipinos polled in late March, only 25 percent said they approved of Marcos' performance.

This was 17 points lower than his 42 percent approval score in February. In contrast, the approval rate of Sara Duterte, vice-president and eldest daughter of Rodrigo Duterte, rose from 52 percent to 59 percent during the same period.

Such a significant change in support rate "reflects the weakening of the political foundation" of the current administration, she said.

prime@chinadailyapac.com