By Teddy Casiño / Makabayan Senatorial Candidate
For the 2025 elections, the pro-Marcos Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas slate is the administration slate. The pro-Duterte PDP-Laban slate is also essentially an administration slate, being a mere faction of the now disbanded UniTeam administration coalition.
The pro-Duterte slate is opposition only in so far as it is opposed to the Marcos faction’s efforts to knock out the Dutertes from the political arena by exposing their crimes. It is opposition only in the context of the rivalry between the two most powerful, corrupt and abusive political dynasties in Philippine history.
In fact, the pro-Marcos and pro-Duterte slates are two sides of the same dirty coin. Kasamaan vs. kadiliman indeed. They are the proponents and beneficiaries of a rotten electoral system where ill-gotten wealth, media celebrity, and the ability to buy and coerce votes determine one’s victory.
In 2025, the real opposition are those who demand that the Marcoses and the Dutertes be held accountable for their crimes against our people. The real opposition are those who want to end the reign of political dynasties in our country.
The real opposition are those who resist the neoliberal economic policies of both the Marcos and Duterte regimes that have destroyed local agriculture and industry and impoverished our people. The opposition are those who reject the Marcos regime’s puppetry to the US and the Duterte regime’s sell-out to China. The real opposition are those who are against malicious red and terrorist tagging. They oppose the Duterte and Marcos regimes’ bloody counter-insurgency programs that demonize civil society and the social movements that work for substantive justice and fundamental, not just cosmetic, social change.
It is disappointing that some former members of the opposition seem to be abdicating their role in this battle, choosing to be “independent” or “neutral”. In doing so, they are conceding and playing into the bogus Marcos-or-Duterte ploy
This leaves the Makabayan slate and other independent and progressive senatorial candidates to unflinchingly take up the cudgels for the opposition. Add to this a number of party lists truly carrying the interests of the poor and marginalized.
We shall willingly accept and take up this challenge. #
