Sen. Imee Marcos, 12th in the “Magic 12,” was first to be proclaimed among the winning senators at the Manila Hotel today, May 17, and in her brief remarks she gave thanks to her mother and her children, and then to the former president Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter. Thus did she indicate where her loyalty lies in this administration headed by her brother, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and signal how she would proceed. 

Yet in a reported ambush interview, as though to demonstrate that politics also means always keeping one’s options open, she hedged. Asked why she didn’t mention her brother in her remarks, she was quoted as saying that she had merely forgotten to do so, and that she had no prepared speech for the occasion. 

On the night of Election Day, early in the listing of the partial and unofficial results of the senatorial race, Imee Marcos was in the 11th slot and Lito Lapid in the 12th. Not much later, as those staying up to catch the drift of the competition to get into the “Magic 12” would observe, Lapid climbed to the 11th slot and the President’s manang slid into the 12th—and stayed there until the end of the canvassing of the official results.

The reelectionist senator claimed that she was honored to be No. 12: “Ikinararangal kong maging ikalabindalawang senador,” she said in her remarks. Still, being the cellar-dweller must have given her pause, even if earlier, asked to comment on her continued exclusion from the prized 12 slots in the pre-election surveys, she said something to the effect that it would be no big deal were she to lose out because, after all, she had always leaned toward the “creative industry.” (True enough: During the campaign her TV and online ads were nothing but creative; the one featuring her and Vice President Sara Duterte, her friend and endorser, both of them clad in black and grim-faced in announcing the bleak state of her brother’s administration, was particularly artful.)

But here she is, back in business, as it were. (Not that she ever left, for even during the Senate break she was busy at work, chairing an inquiry into the ex-president’s arrest and transport to the Netherlands on charges of crimes against humanity in connection with his “war on drugs,” and finding the administration’s moves highly irregular.)

In what has been touted as the quickest count of the Commission on Elections, she has been duly proclaimed with 13,339,227 votes to her name. In the 11th slot, the reelectionist Lapid, an old hand in the Senate and the current butt of online memes on his “do-nothing” record, had 13,394,102 votes. At no point in the count did the candidate in the 13th slot—the broadcaster Ben Tulfo of the budding dynasty—appear to give her camp cause to worry that he could dislodge her from the winning circle.

The results of the May 2019 senatorial elections that marked the midterm of the Duterte administration had Imee Marcos in the eighth slot and Lapid in the seventh. (How curious that she trailed him again in 2025.) Cynthia Villar was No. 1, and at the winners’ proclamation she voiced profuse thanks to the then prez and his daughter, the then mayor of Davao City, for their support in her campaign. Bato dela Rosa was No. 5 and positively thrilled to be elected. 

That event  was memorable not only for the absence of any opposition figure in the winning lineup but also for the enthusiastic execution of the so-called “Duterte salute”—right fist extended straight out—by the winners, except for Grace Poe (No. 2) and Nancy Binay (No. 12).

The new composition of the Senate—startling for, among other things, the high rankings of then opposition candidates Bam Aquino (No. 2) and Kiko Pangilinan (No. 5), who were nowhere near the “Magic 12” in the pre-election surveys—has been described, variously, as the handiwork of young people determined to make their voice heard; as a show of outrage over Duterte’s arrest and transfer to the custody of the International Criminal Court in The Hague; as proof of the Vice President’s continuing influence despite her fallout with the President and her looming impeachment trial; and, not least, as an indication that Filipinos have had enough of what they’ve been getting and are now ready for bigger engagement in the democratic project.

Whatever, analysts are hard at work discussing “machinery” and “brand,” and somehow not spending as much time on vote-buying and violence.

As expected, many of the winning senators thanked God, promised renewed efforts to make lives better for Filipinos, and vowed that the votes cast in their favor would not be wasted. 

Imee Marcos talked about sacrifice and principles—”sakripisyo at prinsipyo.” Pia Cayetano (No. 9) recalled certain illustrious names in the Senate, since passed, and spoke of how she would mentor the youngest member, Camille Villar (No. 10). Bato dela Rosa (No. 3) pointedly said his colleagues in “Duterten” showed that it was possible to be loved by the people even without ayuda (cash assistance). Duterte’s man Friday, Bong Go  (No. 1), intoned: “God is fair.”

That’s all par for the course, and attentive observers are called upon to forget how the reelectionists acted on significant issues as, for just one example, the passage of legislation granting Filipino citizenship to a Chinese “junket operator” who is linked to Philippine offshore gaming operators and who has multiple taxpayer ID numbers. 

Panfilo Lacson (No. 7) remembered how, when he and his siblings were young, their mother impressed upon them that they should never steal. It was as good a statement as any to set the tone of the Senate in the 20th Congress.

Read more: The rhetoric of losing: the rise—and wrong grammar—of the concession speech in the midterm polls