Malaya Movement USA endorses the Makabayan Senatorial Slate and Bayan Muna Partylist

Feb 11

2025 Philippine Midterm Elections

The 2025 midterm elections in the Philippines is underway. We’ve seen the political tug-of-war between the ruling dynasties, the Marcoses and Dutertes. Marcos created his “Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas”, a slate of 12 senators full of corrupt politicians, plunderers, and land grabbers. Meanwhile, Rodrigo Duterte has decided to run for Mayor in Davao, the city where he first implemented the deadly war on drugs, and as of February, Sara Duterte has been impeached by the House of Representatives for her failures and corruption as Vice President.

We are not naive and we know that elections in the Philippines have never been truly democratic. The International Observers Mission in 2022 exposed numerous instances of voter fraud, intimidation, and vote buying, along with widespread disinformation and vote manipulation that helped Marcos Jr. gain power. The shift to online voting for overseas voters poses great concerns of transparency given the fraudulent results of the 2022 elections. The political dynasties and ruling elite have already pumped billions of pesos into their campaigns, the same clans have formed their own sham partylists all to win more seats in congress.

Like in 2022 though, we view participation in the elections as necessary in order to continue 1) to resist fascism by supporting the people’s opposition to the current establishment candidates and 2) expose the corrupt systems in place and work towards alternatives. This is why we proudly endorse the full Makabayan Senatorial Slate and the Bayan Muna Partylist.

This endorsement was based on Malaya Movement USA’s principles of upholding human rights, defending democracy, and asserting sovereignty in the Philippines as well as our 8 Point Program. The Makabayan Coalition, whose candidates and partylists we endorsed in 2022, continue to bring forward pro-people platforms while remaining the staunchest opposition to the fascist Marcos-Duterte regime.

The senatorial slate and the partylist nominees include community leaders who have decades of experience serving the Filipino people as grassroots activists. They come from and represent the most marginalized communities of the Philippines. It is time for the Philippines to have more legislators who will represent the everyday people instead of the corrupt political dynasties that continue to litter the country’s politics and society.

Makabayan Senatorial Slate: