Marcos’ Alyansa debuts 11-person slate in Rizal 

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

The Rizal rally will be the first since Senator Imee Marcos officially left the slate

ANTIPOLO, Philippines — The administration’s Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas returned from a near-two week hiatus on Friday, April 4 to campaign for its 11-person slate in the province of Rizal.

The Antipolo City sortie at the Ynares Center will be headlined by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and comes after the ruling coalition curiously skipped a sortie on March 28, or when the local campaign period kicked off.

The slate is now one person short, after the President’s sister, reelectionist Senator Imee Marcos, withdrew from the coalition for a second time. Senator Marcos earlier protested the arrest and turnover to the International Criminal Court of former president Rodrigo Duterte. She’s also led two Senate probes into what she and other Duterte allies in the Senate assert was an illegal and improper arrest.

Before that, the President left out her name in a campaign speech in vote-rich Cavite on March 21. The next day, March 22, President Marcos asked voters to choose from his 11 endorsed candidates. Prior to that, Senator Marcos skipped sorties in their mother’s hometown of Tacloban, then in Cavite and Laguna. She had joined all of Alyansa’s sorties up until then, save for their kickoff in Tagum City, in a region considered the bailiwick of the Duterte clan.

Alyansa has tried to downplay the family and political drama in its camp, even as it quietly, over the past two weeks, released new social media graphics featuring its 11-person slate sans Senator Marcos. In a release, the coalition dubbed the April 4 sortie a “major show of force in Rizal.”

Campaign manager Navotas Representative Toby Tiangco touted the province as a “powerhouse… where national momentum is built.”

President Marcos and his erstwhile ally, 2022 running mate Vice President Sara Duterte, won big in Rizal back in 2022. Marcos garnered nearly twice the number of votes of his closest rival, then-vice president Leni Robredo, while Sara Duterte had twice more votes than her closest rival, former senator Tito Sotto.

Sotto is now a reelectionist under Alyansa, and is among the candidates who have consistently made it to the “winning” circle, based on preference surveys by pollsters.

The full ticket, according to Alyansa’s latest release, also includes: former interior secretary Benhur Abalos, Makati City Mayor Abby Binay, Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Senator Pia Cayetano, former senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, Senator Lito Lapid, former senator Manny Pacquiao, Senator Francis “Tol” Tolentino, ACT-CIS Representative and former social welfare secretary Erwin Tulfo, and Deputy Speaker Camille Villar.

It’s been quite a dramatic and rough first half of the national campaign period for the Alyansa slate, even as most of its members enjoy consistently good numbers in preference surveys.

Senator Marcos, before she was either cast out or voluntarily exited the slate herself, saw her numbers slip by 13-percentage points, based on the February 2025 preference survey by Pulse Asia. Tolentino and Abalos have seen numbers that put them outside the winning circle. Representative Villar, whose mother and brother are senators, has also found herself in the lower part of preference surveys — within the “winning” margin, but in a statistical tussle with 5 others, including fellow Alyansa candidate former senator Lacson.

There has also been talk that one party in the coalition — the Villar clan’s Nacionalista — may exit Alyansa, after its patriarch and matriarch expressed disapproval of Duterte’s arrest. Tiangco has maintained that the coalition is intact, however.

Its bets have also danced around what’s arguably been among the biggest political issue in the 2025 midterms: the chasm between the once-allied Marcos and Duterte clans. Just days before the national campaign period began, the House impeached Vice President Duterte. Former president Duterte’s March 11 arrest took place just weeks before the midway point of the campaign period.

The popularity of the former president and his eldest daughter remain high, with the performance and trust ratings of President Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte statistically tied.

Over 68.4 million Filipinos registered to vote can select up to 12 senatorial bets, one party-list group, a district representative, and a slate of local government officials on May 12, 2025. – Rappler.com