MANILA, Philippines – From once holding grand rallies that brought together hundreds of thousands of people, former president Rodrigo Duterte and his chosen candidates for the 2025 senatorial race have picked a decidedly more humble yet historic location to launch their midterm campaign: Club Filipino in San Juan City.
The “Duterte senatorial candidates” will join Duterte at a proclamation rally inside the historic and exclusive clubhouse Thursday afternoon, February 13.
The line-up is composed of candidates from the Duterte faction of PDP-Laban, as well as former Duterte appointees and confidantes:
- Former presidential adviser for Northern Luzon Raul Lambino
- Actor Phillip Salvador
- Former Duterte spiritual adviser Apollo Quiboloy
- SAGIP Representative Dante Marcoleta
- Reelectionist senator and former police chief Ronald dela Rosa
- Reelectionist senator and former chief Duterte aide Bong Go
- Marcos’ former executive secretary Vic Rodriguez
- Former Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation board member and singer Jimmy Bondoc
- PDP-Laban Deputy Secretary General for Visayas Jayvee Hinlo
The former president, who is also seeking a return as mayor of Davao City, is expected to headline the proclamation rally.
Club Filipino has been host to many political gatherings and meetings, including campaign kickoffs, through the years. But the venue is most remembered for its role in the restoration of democracy in the Philippines and the ouster of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s father, his namesake and the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos.
That his slate is kicking off a 90-day campaign is in itself a message — and, perhaps, an attempt to associate the Duterte-endorsed candidates with the resistance to Marcos rule.
Duterte can be expected to further that narrative in a speech at Club Filipino on Thursday.
After all, President Marcos himself drew first blood on February 11, painting the 2025 polls during his Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas proclamation rally as a choice between the current policies of his administration and the pro-China, bloody past of Duterte and rival Senate bets.
Days before the campaign period started, the House of Representatives, including Marcos’ allies and relatives, voted to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte, the former president’s eldest daughter.
Marcos has distanced himself from the decision of his congressional allies.
Club Filipino, PDP-Laban history
Club Filipino was where Cory Aquino took her oath as president at the height of the People Power Revolution of 1986, which ended the decades-long rule of the dictator Marcos.
The same building was where the late Benigno Aquino III, Cory’s only son, announced his bid for the presidency in 2010 and where Mar Roxas, Noynoy Aquino’s anointed 2016 bet, also declared a presidential bid that he would lose to Rodrigo Duterte.
The original Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban ng Bayan or PDP-Laban was established by Marcos opposition senators led by the late Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr. and the late Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., husband of Cory and father of Noynoy.
Decades later, in 2015, PDP-Laban adopted Duterte as their presidential bet for the 2016 elections. After Duterte won, it became the ruling party in Philippine politics. But just before the 2022 elections, the party split into two — one faction led by then-party president Manny Pacquiao, and the other, Duterte’s energy chief, concurrent party chair Alfonso Cusi. It was the Cusi faction, backed by Duterte, that emerged victorious in the legal battle.
Yet PDP-Laban was mostly left empty-handed by the end of the 2022 polls. While it had endorsed Duterte’s daughter, Sara, as its vice presidential bet, the younger Duterte chose to run under the banner of Lakas-CMD and remained affiliated with Hugpong ng Pagbabago.
Even as Cusi’s faction eventually endorsed Marcos as president, it was never officially a member of the Marcos-Duterte “Uniteam” coalition.
Both the Duterte clan and the former president’s PDP-Laban find themselves in a situation that would have been unimaginable in the six years of the Duterte administration: a slate without the machinery and campaign kitty of a ruling party.
Yet the Dutertes — the former president and Sara — cannot be counted out in Philippine politics.
The Vice President’s trust and approval ratings, in surveys taken before she was impeached by the House of Representatives, were statistically tied with those of President Marcos, with around half of Filipinos saying they trusted her or approved of her as vice president.
Senatorial bets — whether they be the anointed of Marcos or Duterte — would be eager to woo supporters of both sides, even as questions over the Senate impeachment trial linger.
Only two of Duterte’s anointed have landed in the top preference polls for 2025 — reelectionists Bong Go and Dela Rosa. Majority, or 10 out of 14 of those considered statistically probable to win according to a January 2025 preference poll, are part of Marcos’ Alyansa. – Rappler.com