Fascinating is the fact that for the first time ever in the history of Filipino election campaigns an issue involving an overbearing foreign power is one of the hot-button issues.

And, judging by the electorate’s positive response so far, the troublesome China issue is more than amply boosting the chances of the administration’s senatorial bets.

A fact that explains why President Marcos Jr. placed China dead center in the run-up to the midterms, affording him a clear line of attack against his rampaging former allies whose leaders he cruelly lambasted last week as “pimps” and “Chinese lackeys.”

Speaking to supporters in his predecessor’s supposed stronghold and bailiwick, Mindanao, the Chief Executive carpet-bombed the former strongman in his weakest flank.

“You will choose if we will go back to the time when our leaders wanted the Philippines to be a province of China,” thundered a visibly testy Marcos, a far cry from his usually reticent public speechifying.

Marcos was referring, of course, to the appalling pronouncement by China appeaser Rodrigo Duterte in the middle of his regime.

The former strongman was never able to live down that comment, even as he tried to make amends for his failed pro-China stance near the end of his term upon realizing that his courtship of China had turned out to be a case of “unrequited love.”

In the same speech in Davao del Norte, Marcos also took aim at senatorial candidates suspiciously silent over China’s high-profile confrontations with Philippine ships in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

“None of (the administration’s candidates) are Chinese lackeys who cheered while our Coast Guard was being water-cannoned by big Chinese ships,” Marcos said.

Even without naming names, Marcos’s marked derision clearly singled out the bets of the Duterte-led PDP-Laban who had generally kept their mouths shut about China and whose party also had the temerity to recently hold discussions with a Chinese political group.

Despite Marcos’s avowed detractors rebuking his tirades as campaign bashing, most independent observers agreed Marcos hit the bullseye on the effect of the China issue on Filipinos and made astute use of it.

The China issue, as one political scientist told a reporter, is a compelling election issue since it “has to do with our sovereignty.”

And in politics, highlighting a nation’s sovereignty issues and clearly identifying a foreign interloper making light of those issues is the best way to foster patriotism and unite a nation.

Also, in Marcos’ particular case, he is helped by the recent open reporting and debates over China’s abuses in the WPS.

In fact, Marcos, says a political scientist, is clearly “banking on the fact” that the widespread coverage and debates on the WPS clashes is fueling the electorate’s support for his administration’s aggressive pushback against China.

Marcos’ tact is in clear contrast to the previous regime’s markedly cozy relationship with China, which during its heyday discouraged and downplayed reports and debates over China’s abuses.

And worse, the previous regime even cultivated the fear — through a massive social media propaganda machine that shaped the public consciousness — that antagonizing China risked war and that giving in to China was the safest policy.

But with the public increasingly informed correctly about China’s activities, those manufactured public fears have been largely contained, to the extent that an overwhelming majority of Filipinos now back standing up to China.

It seems that such a dramatic turn in public sentiment has been politically devastating to the Dutertes, leading to growing speculations that the once popular family is not only losing public support but is now on the losing end of the Marcos-Duterte war of attrition.