By Junex Doronio
MANILA — Anticipating an intense political battle in the upcoming 2025 mid-term elections since it will be a sort of referendum for the Marcos Jr administration’s policies and performance, the “reinvigorated” opposition is eyeing to field former Vice President Leni Robredo, former Senators Leila de Lima, Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan and Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV and human rights lawyer Juan Manuel “Chel” Diokno for the Senate race.
“This (2025 midterm elections) is important for President (Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.) and his allies since they’re going to find out if the voters are approving what they have been doing in the past 2 or more years,” University of Santo Tomas (UST) Political Science Department chair Dennis Coronacion said in a television interview on Saturday (24 February 2024).
He told ANC’s “Dateline Philippines” that having more members in the opposition at the House and Senate would help “ensure that there’s going to be a healthy democracy” by helping make sure that the administration “using its numbers, is not going to come up with half-baked laws” and policies that are against the public interest.
“It’s going to strengthen (if they win)… increase and strengthen the voice of the opposition in the Senate,” Coronacion said.
Learning from experience, the UST professor noted that in Robredo-led opposition slate ran on a platform of good governance, food security and human rights, but was trounced by the UniTeam’s promise of a united government.
“The messages that they tried to convey in the past elections did not resonate with the voters,” Coronacion noted.
He added that the Liberal Party (LP) will need to learn to win voters over “without sacrificing the party’s principles.”
Apart from LP, Akbayan, the Makabayan bloc and a coalition of labor groups and formations have fielded opposition slates in recent senatorial elections but failed to win, except Senator Risa Hontiveros of Akbayan in 2022 polls.
(el Amigo/MNM)