Preliminary results comprising 94% of returns from Monday's midterm elections showed at least eight candidates endorsed by Duterte were leading in races for 12 seats in the 24-member Senate. Official Commission on Election results are expected to be declared in about a week.
Duterte's three children were also expected to win races for mayor, vice mayor and a congressional seat representing their southern home region of Davao city. The 74-year-old maverick leader first carved a reputation as an extra-tough mayor of the city who hunted drug addicts and criminals on a Harley Davidson motorcycle and carried the nickname Duterte Harry after the gunslinging Clint Eastwood film character.
Manila-based analyst Ronald Holmes, however, said that except for dela Rosa and Duterte's longtime aide, Bong Go, who entered politics for the first time without their own established bases of support, other leading administration senatorial contenders earned votes based on their own political track records.
Duterte, who has shown little tolerance for critics, especially those who question his anti-drug campaign, aimed for stronger leverage in the traditionally more independent Senate to bolster his legislative agenda. The handful of incumbent opposition senators whose seats were not up for election could potentially get backing from leading independent aspirants to veto Duterte's emerging majority in the upper chamber. At least seven senators are needed to block any proposal by Duterte's camp to revise the constitution, which was passed with anti-dictatorial safeguards in 1987, a year after Marcos was ousted by an army-backed"people power" revolt.