00:00In the sweltering heat, people lined up on Monday morning to vote in the Philippines' midterm elections.
00:07A heated battle between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte.
00:13Once ironclad political allies, now bitter rivals.
00:18Voters here say the recent political turmoil caused by this rivalry has taken a toll on the country
00:24and that they are ready for change.
00:26For me, the government is getting stressful. That's why our votes are very important.
00:34I hope we choose the deserving candidates.
00:37Thousands of elected positions across the country are at stake, from the national legislature down to local posts.
00:45But it's the Senate that people are paying close attention to.
00:49Half of the 24 Senate seats are up for grabs.
00:52Those senators could decide the fate of Vice President Sara Duterte.
00:57Who is facing allegations of misuse of funds.
01:01She was impeached by Congress last February, but may run for president in 2028.
01:07Should the Senate vote to convict her, Duterte would be banned from holding elected office.
01:13The partial and unofficial election results that have come in so far
01:17show that the new batch of 12 senators neither fully favor the Marcos or Duterte camp.
01:22While the country's liberal opposition had a surprising upset, gaining two seats in the Senate.
01:29In a statement, Vice President Duterte said that while she acknowledges the results of the elections,
01:34the outcome was not what she expected, and called on citizens to hold the government accountable.
01:40In another statement, President Marcos also lamented the results, but says that his party vows to carry on in their work.
01:47Here in Taiwan, voters overwhelmingly voted for Duterte-aligned candidates,
01:53showing the camp's strong support among overseas Filipinos,
01:57where voters cast their ballots online through their personal devices.
02:00While overseas voting went without incident, the same could not be said for the Philippines.
02:09Besides reports of malfunctioning voting machines and incidents of overvoting due to machines
02:15incorrectly reading the back-to-back ballots,
02:18riots, gun violence, and even a deadly shootout were reported in several cities and municipalities.
02:24Despite this, the Philippines' election commission says this round of voting was still relatively successful.
02:31If we don't have a failure of elections whatsoever, all of them have functioned.
02:36It's not a failure to elect because it is not based on violence, intimidation, threat, or force majeure.
02:46With the midterm elections over, the stability of the Philippines' two biggest political dynasties
02:51will be further put to the test in the coming weeks and months.
02:56Devin Tsai and Gina Lopez for Taiwan Plus.
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