It’s less than two days before the midterm polls, and one’s sense of foreboding takes on deeper proportions with the Social Weather Stations’ final pre-election survey suggesting the composition of the next Senate.

Earlier surveys have already suggested the future makeup of the chamber, with observable differences only in the placements of those in the “Magic 12.” These so-called snapshots in time have broadly predicted the result of the electoral exercise—by the looks of it, same old, same old, with an appalling number of dynasts thrown in. 

But the question raised by an earnest young voter fighting the onset of despair is urgently pertinent: Why would she and others like herself who believe that they hold their destiny in their hands be convinced that these percentages are writ in stone?

Ads costing a fortune

It rankles the young voter that the wealthy candidates’ campaign ads of song-and-dance and hug-and-kiss—stellar instances of disrespect for the intelligence and memory of voters of a certain age—inundated the airwaves. The attentive observer can readily see her point. For example, Sen. Imee Marcos’ push for reelection is noteworthy for at least the many slick, craftily produced TV and online ads—including one taking off from the 1986 people’s uprising that toppled her father’s dictatorship and drove her family out of the Palace, and another letting everyone in on her unpleasant relations with her cousin the Speaker and her brother the President and his wife—which cannot but cost a fortune. And the aspiring senator Camille Villar consistently displayed, even before the official campaign period began, her family’s unlimited resources in her advertising, whether outdoors and in the multimedia. Their statements of campaign expenses, as well as those of other candidates, should be subjects of close scrutiny.

Quite in contrast, and to underscore the reality that only the very rich can run an exhaustive political campaign, hardly any ads promoting the senatorial candidacies of, say, Moro activist Amirah Lidasan, or of Filipino Nurses United secretary general Jocelyn Andamo, could be seen.

The young voter is correct to lament the tremendous amounts of money spent for these ads and the campaign materials littering the landscape. Given time, she’d go on to discuss the good that could have resulted were those funds directed at information drives on the candidates’ platforms (such as these are), or, simply, at programs designed to help Filipinos become informed and aware of current political issues and the impact on their lives; of their rights, their circumstances, and how they got to where they are; of the mechanics of ayuda and how taxpayer money is manipulated to appear like the fruits of the dispenser’s generosity; of the unrelenting corruption that continues to impoverish this country and widen inequality; of the stupidity of relying on popularity and notoriety to elect public officials….

The big man in entertainment, Willie Revillame, for example, the one who tosses wads of money in a TV show at men and women fawning over him, whose adulation he suffers, and who dispenses jackets and other freebies on the campaign trail—what will he do in that lawmaking chamber that was once peopled by legal eagles? Beyond the bromide about serbisyo for the mahirap, he has admitted having yet no program of action and has testily demanded why he is being bashed for that lack. How will he educate himself in the Senate’s workings and make of himself a worthy beneficiary of the people’s vote—and, not to appear trivial, will he see nothing disgraceful in his partner using his assigned quarters  for engaging in beauty protocols such as glutathione treatments? (The spouse of Sen. Robinhood Padilla, No. 1 in the last senatorial elections, has demonstrated that such a thing could occur.)

The young voter has also trained her dismayed eye on the local polls, which are arguably as important, if not more so, as the senatorial race. If the Senate had two sets of siblings and a mother-son combo, so too are husbands and wives, parents and offspring, whole families, seeking public office in cities and provinces, seeing no shame in the act and gleeful in the fact that there is yet no legislation to enable the constitutional provision against political dynasties. Party-list representation, once envisioned to provide room in the House for the poor and marginalized, has gone to the extreme and is now a convenient way in for business moguls and other privileged types.

Six Tulfos are running for seats in both chambers of Congress. As many as five Dutertes, including the ex-president now detained in The Hague awaiting trial on charges of crimes against humanity in connection with his infamous “war on drugs” and the reelectionist congressman accused of beating up a businessman in a bar, are running in the family bailiwick Davao City. Etc.

Struggle for power 

That the conflict between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte—purely and simply a collapse of transactional politics and now a full-blown struggle for power—has set the pace of the midterm elections is not lost on the young voter (and should not be lost on any other voter, young or old). Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest and transfer to the custody of the International Criminal Court remain a point of contention to be used by his camp (to which Imee Marcos belongs) against the President. The groundswell of support for the old man has extended not only to his impeached daughter but also to the candidates associated with him.

The VP’s endorsement of certain candidates including the same Imee Marcos is a test of how far her improved approval ratings will take her. Her impeachment trial on charges of violations of the Constitution, graft and corruption and other high crimes looms ever large. The excellent positioning in the surveys of Senators Bong Go and Bato dela Rosa, both reelectionist Duterte stalwarts, may be comforting to the Duterte camp, but it needs bigger numbers for her acquittal at her trial.

The young voter, being the studious sort, is aware of Dela Rosa’s role as chief implementor of Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. As well, she has read about Go’s memorable description of politics as “napakadumi” (filthy): It was said by Go in apparent dismay in 2022, before the submission of candidacies for the top posts, and the lameduck president, in moving heaven and earth to blunt the effects of his Inday Sara’s decision to play second fiddle to Ferdinand Marcos Jr., was pushing and pulling his man Friday to run for vice president, for president even. Napakadumi or not, look where politics has taken him.

According to GMA Integrated News Research, Filipinos aged 18 to 44 make up about 63% of the voting-age population and 68% of the registered voters for the May 12 elections. There are many candidates fully qualified to redeem this society and make of it a bastion of justice, equality, and peace for these voters and their loved ones. May they fight for their future with intelligence and grace.