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Two of the most enduring features of Philippine politics are the dominance of political dynasties and the fluid alliances and shifting loyalties of political actors. This is best seen in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Congress, where nearly 80 per cent of lawmakers belong to political dynasties. For decades, they have monopolized electoral competition through a masterful blend of patronage, clientelist linkages with voters and money politics--a formula that continues to win local elections. The results of the 2025 midterm elections indicate that political dynasties remain in control, yet there were notable breakthroughs in certain areas where dynastic candidates were defeated by politicians who departed from the familial brand. While these upsets may not dismantle dynastic power across the board, they offer a glimmer of hope for Philippine politics.

For many Filipinos, local government is the government. Local officials are the ones whom the public can approach directly and daily; they are the ones who decide the policies that affect most people. According to the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), 18,180 local offices were at stake in the 2025 midterm elections. This included 254 district representatives,2 82 provincial governors and 82 vice governors, 840 provincial board members, 149 city mayors and 149 vice mayors, 1,690 city councilors, 1,493 municipal mayors and 1,493 vice mayors, and 11,948 municipal councilors. The average voter had to decide 15 local positions. As such, voters must carefully weigh which candidates are best suited for each office. Over the past four election cycles, the number of uncontested positions at the local level has been increasing. In the 2025 midterm elections, there are 1,068 uncontested seats, almost 20 per cent more than in 2022.

Ahead of the 2022 Philippines presidential elections, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son and namesake of the country's late dictator, and Sara Duterte, daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, joined forces. This alliance between two of the country's most powerful political dynasties promised unity and stability, and their ticket won a landslide. But the UniTeam pact quickly unravelled. Heading into the 2025 midterm elections, some commentators argued it was not so much a plebiscite on the incumbent administration's performance as a referendum on this high-stakes, dynastic battle. Here, Mallari explores how the UniTeam's break-up stoked \"affective polarization\" in society, making it an us-versus-them battleground in which voters were inundated with emotional rhetoric and in which both camps could leverage notions of betrayal and loyalty to strengthen their support and antagonize their rival.

Something unprecedented happened in the May 2025 Philippine midterm elections: entire provincial races were dominated by women candidates. In Ilocos Norte, Guimaras, Zamboanga Del Sur and Samar, every candidate for provincial governor was female. Nationwide, more women were elected governors than ever before. On the surface, it appeared to be a milestone for Philippine democracy. In a nation where men had long shaped local politics, more doors appear to be opening for women. But are they? While the trend appears empowering, these women did not rise from grassroots movements or climb the ranks of strong, programmatic political parties. Their ascent was not driven by bold social policy reforms or ideological shifts among voters. Instead, they were convenient substitutes for male members of their dynasties or force multipliers of their political clan.

If Rodrigo Duterte' presidential victory in 2016 ushered in a period of democratic backsliding, halting the liberal democratic order established after the 1986 People Power Revolution, then the election of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice-President Sara Duterte in 2022 consolidated two dynastic families with authoritarian and populist tendencies. But in a country where political parties are weak, personalities dominate and alliances rarely survive beyond election day, observers quickly wondered how long this new partnership might endure. Unsurprisingly, cracks started to appear immediately after the 2022 elections, and by 2024, the UniTeam alliance had unraveled. Rodrigo Duterte criticized Marcos Jr.'s leadership style as well as his administration's firmer stance against China in the South China Sea and its return to a traditional alliance with the United States. The House of Representatives initiated investigations into suspicious budgetary spending by Sara Duterte. In November 2024, she angrily accused President Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and House Speaker Martin Romualdez of weak leadership, corruption and plotting to remove her from office ahead of a potential 2028 presidential bid. She also admitted to hiring an assassin to kill them should they succeed in plotting against her life.

At the 2022 presidential elections, the \"UniTeam\" alliance of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte relied heavily on social media to amplify their vague yet disciplined message of \"unity\", a strategy that proved instrumental in securing their landslide victory. Once in office, President Marcos Jr. then leveraged online platforms to recast his family's narrative and shine a better light on his late father's dictatorial rule. Pro-Marcos Jr. vloggers and influencers, many of whom campaigned for the UniTeam ticket in 2022, dominated feeds in the early months of his administration. However, the Marcos-Duterte partnership always seemed to be an \"alliance of political convenience\", and the cracks emerged quickly after Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte took office. Tensions escalated in 2024 after the House of Representatives began probing Sara Duterte for allegedly misusing confidential funds. In response, she publicly accused House Speaker Martin Romualdez, Marcos Jr.'s cousin, of orchestrating the witch hunt. In November that year, she issued apparent death threats against Romualdez and the Marcos family. She was impeached by the House in Feb 2025, with a Senate trial scheduled for June, which could potentially ban her from politics.

The 2025 Philippine midterm elections unfolded against the backdrop of an intensifying rivalry between the Marcos and Duterte dynasties. Portrayed by media and political institutions as a highstakes drama, it diverted public attention away from substantive policy debates, turning the elections into a contest for dominance between two entrenched political families. As the Marcos camp worked to consolidate its institutional power and the Duterte bloc resisted what it saw as persecution, the elections effectively became a referendum not only on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s administration but also on the fractured UniTeam alliance that had propelled it to power. Beneath this polarized backdrop, the party-list (PL) elections revealed a more nuanced picture of democratic health and dysfunction. From the outset, a debate emerged over whether the PL system should be exclusive to marginalized sectors or open to all parties. Initially, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) adopted an inclusive interpretation, allowing any political group to participate unless explicitly disqualified under Section 6 of the PL Act.

On 12 May 2025, over 68 million Filipinos cast their ballots in the country's midterm elections. Voters chose candidates for half of the 24-member Senate, district and party-list seats in the House of Representatives and a range of local offices. Typically, these interim elections serve as informal referendums on the incumbent administration's popularity and whether the president has successfully consolidated power in the legislature and across the provinces. The 2025 campaign unfolded in a very different political climate from past cycles. Two historic events further shaped the midterms. If the senatorial election results revealed one clear message from the Filipino electorate, it was their overt dissatisfaction with candidates from Marcos Jr.'s Alliance for a New Philippines (Alyansa) slate. The evidence of voter remorse is unmistakable, signaling that Filipinos want a new direction. This article demonstrates how Filipinos wielded their ballots not only to register discontent or allegiance but also to chart their nation's course for years to come.

At the 2025 midterm elections, Rodrigo Duterte, the former president, was elected mayor of Davao City despite having been arrested by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged crimes against humanity and sent to The Hague for trial just months earlier. His eldest son, Paolo, was re-elected to the House of Representatives, and his youngest son, Sebastian, became Davao City's vice mayor. During their campaigns, Duterte's children projected themselves as upholding their father's propensity for violence. Sebastian Duterte talked tough on drug users and criminals, declaring in Mar 2024, \"If you don't leave [Davao], I will kill you.\" Within a week of this threat, seven drug suspects were killed. (Between 12,000 and 30,000 people were killed in Duterte's drug war from July 2016 to Mar 2019.) CCTV video showing Paolo Duterte assaulting a businessman shortly before midterms had echoes of his sister, Vice President Sara Duterte, assaulting a court sheriff in front of cameras in 2011. Duterte's strategy of leveraging violence as a political tool continues to endure, with many pro-Duterte candidates mimicking his tough-on-crime, \"violent populist\" persona. But how has the political discourse on Duterte's drug war changed?

In the American system of government, courts are designed to operate within the legal sphere, with limited political interference. Is it possible, though, that a behavior that is at the heart of the political process can be influenced directly by a judicial decision? Focusing on voter registration big data for the universe of voters in North Carolina around the time of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the authors assess the roles of gender, political party affiliation, and age in voter registration. North Carolina is the only state whose voter registry has the necessary granularity over time and information needed. Women and Democrats were more likely to register to vote after information about the ruling was released, suggesting that Dobbs influenced their behavior. This effect on voter registration gender gap was unique to June 2022, unlike previous midterm election years (2014 and 2018). Interrupted time-series analyses lend further support to these findings.