Marcos family dominates Ilocos Norte polls

MANILA, Philippines — The family of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is poised to take over local government positions in Ilocos Norte. 

According to the unofficial count, with 84.99% of transmitted data from the Commission on Elections' transparency server as of 7:24 a.m., the Marcos family is set to secure the gubernatorial and congressional seats of the province. 

Cecilia Marcos, who is the incumbent vice governor of Ilocos Norte, leads the gubernatorial race with 253,685 votes.

Cecilia’s opponent, Joy Butay, only secured 12,142 votes. 

She will be replaced by Matthew Marcos-Manotoc, the son of Sen. Imee Marcos. He is the incumbent governor of Ilocos Norte. 

Running unopposed, Matthew currently has 266,628 votes. 

Meanwhile, Marcos Jr.’s son, Sandro Marcos, will retain the congressional seat of the first legislative district of Ilocos Norte with 145,491 votes.  Like Matthew, he also ran unopposed. 

As of writing, with 80.37% of election returns processed, Imee, who is a re-electionist, is in 12th place in the Senate race with 10,709,600 votes.

Imee and the president. Imee was initially included in the admin-backed “Alyansa” slate.

However, in March, she withdrew from the party endorsed by his brother, saying that she could no longer stand on the same platform with the rest of the Alyansa senatorial candidates.

Her withdrawal came after the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte by the International Criminal Court.

A month later, Vice President Sara Duterte, who previously uttered scathing remarks against the president, endorsed Imee, saying that they have a common vision for a “peaceful and prosperous Philippines.”