Leader’s grip tightens as allies dominate Senate race

MANILA — The Philippine president’s allies won a majority of the 12 Senate seats at stake in midterm elections, official results showed Wednesday, while the opposition’s shutout heralds a stronger grip on power by a leader accused of massive human rights violations.

Election officials proclaimed the winners after finishing the official count of the May 13 elections overnight. The tally had been delayed by glitches in automated counting machines.

President Rodrigo Duterte backed eight winning aspirants to half of the seats in the 24member Senate, including his former national police chief, Ronald dela Rosa, who enforced Duterte’s crackdown on illegal drugs in a campaign that left thousands of suspects dead and drew international condemnation.

Last week’s vote has been seen as a gauge of public support for Duterte, who is midway through the single six-year term Philippine presidents are allowed under the constitution. His antidrug crackdown, unorthodox leadership style, combative and sexist jokeladen outbursts, and contentious embrace of China have been the hallmarks of his presidency.

“Do I look like a rubber stamp?” Senator-elect Bong Go, a longtime Duterte aide, said when reporters asked him about concerns that the new Senate would be beholden to Duterte.

But he stressed he would back the president’s war against criminality, corruption and illegal drugs and would support a bill to reimpose the death penalty for heinous crimes and drug trafficking. Go said Duterte has not given any illegal orders to him or anyone he supervised.

Duterte’s three children also won races for mayor, vice mayor and a congressional seat representing their southern home region of Davao city. Voters also decided congressional, gubernatorial, mayoral, and city and township races. Nearly 75% of more than 63 million registered Filipinos cast their votes in a strong turnout.

Analysts say many Filipinos seem more open to authoritarianism due to failures of past liberal leaders. Such a mind-set has helped the family of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos make a political comeback, the latest example being his daughter, Imee Marcos, one of the winning Senate candidates who was endorsed by Duterte.