Mid-term fireworks

Mid-term fireworks | Daily Tribune

Next year’s midterm elections are shaping up to be the most interesting and intense in ages if the Duterte boys make good their reported Senate bid.

Elections in the middle of an incumbent’s term are considered in the Philippines a referendum in which the ruling power either sinks or swims for the rest of a six-year presidency.

According to Vice President Sara Duterte, who recently let go of her Cabinet post, former president Rodrigo Duterte and his sons, Polong and Baste, will be gunning for Senate seats next year.

The off-the-cuff announcement of VP Sara created a major political tremor that made every aspirant to what is considered the incubator for the presidency, which is the Senate, tremble.

The three Dutertes are expected to run on a platform of peace and order and they will get the votes.

No political figures have made an impression in the battle against crime and the dreaded narcotics other than the Dutertes.

Despite all the brickbats and recently the calls for accountability, most Filipinos remember the war on drugs as the renaissance of peace and order in the country when civilians won back the streets from the dregs of society and the powerful crime syndicates.

Filipinos living overseas idolized Duterte for just one reason — his tough measures against crime and vice took away their worries for their family members back home.

Consider the 10 million of the diaspora multiplied by the numbers of their family members back home all rooting for Duterte.

There are misconceptions about the former president being an ally of incumbent Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. since Sara, Duterte’s daughter, was his successful running mate.

Father and daughter, however, were at odds over the 2022 run since Sara was expected to contest the presidency to mark a continuity of the Duterte thrust.

There are wide perceptions now that the tough measures against crime and drugs have greatly tilted the balance of the streets back to the underworld groups.

Duterte’s political nemeses were stunned and silent about the revelation.

Those harping on the dynastic configuration of three Dutertes in the Senate cannot gloss over the fact of incumbent senators and those lined up as candidates who are related to each other.

As Vice President Jojo Binay’s best defense to the critics of dynasties, the voters should be allowed to choose whom they want for their leaders.

The other possibility for the Duterte triumvirate is they will become a political force that the Palace should watch out for.

If any of the Dutertes top the race, the three will then dictate which committees they will head and that will have huge implications in terms of executive-legislative rapport.

With Davao City still topping the list of the most livable places in the region due to its low crime rate, the platform of crime eradication will resonate among the people and will translate to votes.

The contest will thus be between, in most instances, popularity, generated by hits in social media against the clear platform against crime.

Strangely, the defiance of the former president against international groups criticizing his methodology is widely viewed as upholding the welfare of Filipinos against foreign influence.

For a race that has been subjugated for centuries, that defiance is a big deal.

Duterte has once been dismissed as a one-trick pony in carrying only his strong message against crime but it worked in getting the worried public on his side.