It reflects harshly on us Filipinos that in this country, we vote not for change but for continuity. And what a continuity it is — a carousel of surnames parading as public servants, recycled faces promising progress on self-proclaimed superior pedigree.

On Monday, millions braved the scorching May sun, lining up before ballot boxes and malfunctioning vote-counting machines, hoping — some sincerely, others out of habit — to shape a future. But, what future? The names were the same, plucked from the same fossilized dynasties, embalmed in entitlement.

This paper called it early: this midterm vote is more than a referendum on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. It is also about Sara Duterte — her alleged “high crimes” that led to her impeachment by the House last March. Agence France-Presse echoed that view, reporting on the long queues and the shadow of Davao looming over the polls.

But to cast Duterte’s alleged misuse of confidential funds, constitutional violations and Hollywood-grade assassination plots against the President, First Lady and Speaker as the main event is to miss the larger tragedy. The reckoning isn’t with Sara Duterte — it’s with ourselves.

Even if Duterte is found guilty by the incoming Senate, even if she is barred from seeking the presidency in 2028, the disease — dynastic politics — will endure. The conditions that breed institutional rot, impunity, patronage and the worship of spectacle — remain.

Look no further than the Senate, or what passes for it. Projections point to a trio of Tulfo siblings, another Cayetano or two, and more of the same names dressed in new slogans. This isn’t succession. It’s inheritance. Hereditary rule with campaign jingles. This is not governance. This is feudalism with Instagram filters.

Comelec Chair George Garcia tells us the machines are clean; the hash codes match. “Trust the process,” he says. But trust isn’t built on audit logs. Trust is when votes aren’t currency, when old women aren’t left to die waiting for poll watcher stipends in Zamboanga hotels, and when mass vote-buying operations are not dressed up as civic engagements outside city halls.

Comelec claims over 500 candidates are under investigation. It does not say how many will face justice. Or whether justice stands a chance in a system built not to correct, but to protect — power, privilege and perpetuity. There is a deeper story here. This isn’t just a midterm. This is a family feud: Marcos vs. Duterte, with the nation as collateral.

Rodrigo Duterte, now detained in The Hague, may be out of Malacañang but not out of the game — running for Davao mayor for a last hurrah. His daughter’s impeachment? To her camp, it’s not law but the administration’s vendetta, against the signal that their dynasty’s sun has set. But has it?

This supposed purge of Duterte loyalists is not a cleansing. It’s a reshuffling. Marcos-backed candidates seemed ready to dominate the Senate — the very chamber that will decide her fate. That’s not justice, that’s a numbers game and the scorekeepers are already inside.

What’s at stake isn’t just Sara Duterte’s future. It’s 2028. It’s who gets to sit at the table, and who gets served. Spoiler alert: it won’t be us.

The Employers Confederation of the Philippines tells us to “support the winning team.” Easy to say for those watching from air-conditioned skyboxes. For the rest of us — sweating in stairwells, exchanging stubs for envelopes, watching ballots get brokered — “support” is a luxury we cannot afford.

The question isn’t whether Duterte falls. The question is whether we will ever rise. Because as long as the Senate resembles a family reunion, as long as public office is passed around like heirloom jewelry, as long as this system rewards dynastic cannibalism — we are not a democracy.

We are a monarchy with rotating crowns.

There were moments — flickering, fragile — in those polling stations, in the faces that endured the chaos and the heat, that felt like hope. But hope without change is delusion. And delusion is the fuel that keeps this republic running — not forward, but in circles.