Dynasties Tighten Grip on the Senate

The WR Numero April 2025 survey confirmed what many Filipinos already suspected: the Senate remains a family business, not a democratic institution.

Despite loud promises of “new politics,” the old names dominate the ballot for the May 2025 elections.

Erwin Tulfo led voter preferences in Metro Manila and Luzon with 47 percent.

Behind him were Vicente Sotto III (32 percent), Pia Cayetano (31 percent), and a lineup of veterans like Ping Lacson, Lito Lapid, Abby Binay, and Bong Go.

In the Visayas, it was the same story.

Erwin Tulfo posted 53 percent support, followed by his brother Ben Tulfo at 41 percent.

Lapid, Cayetano, and Camille Villar all scored around 39 to 40 percent, again pointing to dynastic strength.

Mindanao offered no relief.

Senator Bato dela Rosa dominated the region with a staggering 76 percent.

Bong Go followed with 67 percent, and Duterte allies like Jimmy Bondoc, Phillip Salvador, and Rodante Marcoleta clustered in the top ranks.

Even as Mindanao remains one of the poorest regions in the country, its voters cling tightly to the Duterte brand, despite former President Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest by the International Criminal Court last March.

Survey after survey, the pattern is clear: Filipinos are not electing public servants. They are electing surnames.

This is a painful fall from grace for what the Philippine Senate once represented. It used to be the venue for stormy petrels debating the best of Philippine laws and minds.

It was once a training ground for future presidents — Quezon, Osmeña, Magsaysay, and even Aquino — where visionaries clashed over the nation’s path forward.

Today, that legacy has been hollowed out into a dynastic parade, where family loyalty often outweighs legislative excellence.

The “Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas,” heavily backed by the Marcos Jr. administration, is less a coalition for change than a coalition for continuity.

Imee Marcos, Camille Villar, Pia Cayetano, and Abby Binay — these are not new faces. They are recycled dynasties wearing new slogans.

The supposed “new politics” turns out to be an old dynasty playbook with updated branding.

Worse, dynasties have evolved. They no longer rely solely on political machinery and local patronage. They have learned to dominate the media ecosystem.

The Tulfo brothers are textbook examples.

They leveraged years of radio, TV, and online exposure to build emotional loyalty, long before setting foot in the Senate race. Their popularity is not based on legislative experience or reformist credentials. It is based on media saturation and emotional spectacle.

In an era ruled by social media, dynasties thrive because they deliver constant visibility, not credible governance.

The WR Numero figures show that the emotional economy now defines Philippine elections. Familiarity, nostalgia, and spectacle have replaced vision, platforms, and accountability.

Even as Filipinos struggle with inflation, unemployment, and corruption scandals, they seem poised to reinstall the very political families that profited from decades of systemic failure.

This is not merely a failure of candidates. It is a failure of the entire system — and of voter expectations.

The supply of candidates is rotten because the demand remains rooted in survival politics: choosing the devil you know rather than risking the unknown.

Breaking this cycle requires more than urging voters to “choose better.” It demands serious structural reforms. Anti-dynasty legislation must finally move beyond lip service.

Campaign finance rules must be tightened to prevent dynasties from monopolizing visibility.

Civic education must be overhauled to teach voters that democracy is not an inheritance passed down from one political clan to another.

Without these changes, the Senate will continue to be a shadow of its former self.

Surveys like WR Numero’s will continue to read like family newsletters rather than measures of democratic health.

The tragedy is not simply that reformist candidates struggle. The tragedy is that the public keeps inheriting the same broken future, election after election.

Until Filipinos break this chain, the promise of “Bagong Pilipinas” will remain exactly that — a promise, forever postponed by familiar faces, familiar families, and a familiar failure to imagine something better.