Presidential elections in the Philippines were held on May 9, 2022, as part of the 2022 general election. This was the 17th direct presidential election and 15th vice presidential election in the country since 1935, and the sixth sextennial presidential and vice presidential election since 1992.
Incumbent president Rodrigo Duterte was ineligible for re-election because the president is limited to a single term under the 1987 Philippine Constitution. Incumbent vice president Leni Robredo was eligible for re-election but chose to run for the presidency instead. Therefore, this election determined the 17th president and the 15th vice president. The president and vice president are elected separately, so the two winning candidates can come from different political parties.
The election took place amidst the COVID-19 pandemic which had caused the country's economy to fall into recession. Other key issues were the continuation of President Duterte's policies, a re-examination of the country's foreign relationships in response to its territorial dispute with China, management of the country's debt, rising inflation, and climate change.
The ticket of former senator Bongbong Marcos and Davao City mayor Sara Duterte won the presidency and vice presidency respectively, defeating incumbent vice president Leni Robredo and incumbent senator Francis Pangilinan in a landslide. It was the first election since the establishment of the Fifth Republic in 1987 where the president and vice president were elected by a majority, and the first election since 2004 where the winning president and vice president came from the same presidential ticket. The election saw the highest turnout since 1998, with about 56 million voters participating. Marcos received 31.6 million votes, the most votes ever cast for a candidate in a presidential election in the Philippines, while Duterte received 32.2 million votes, the most votes ever cast for a candidate in the country.
Marcos became the second president from Ilocos Norte after his father, former president Ferdinand Marcos, while Duterte became the first vice president from Davao City, the third vice president to come from Mindanao after Emmanuel Pelaez and Teofisto Guingona Jr., and the youngest to be elected. This also marked the return of the Marcos family to power for the first time since the People Power Revolution. Marcos was inaugurated on June 30, 2022, while Duterte was inaugurated earlier on June 19, 2022. The election and subsequent transfer of power marked another large-scale democratic transition conducted through the Philippines' national electoral system.
Background
In the 2016 presidential and vice presidential elections, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan (transl. Philippine Democratic Party–People Power; PDP–Laban) won the presidency against four other candidates, while House representative from Camarines Sur Leni Robredo of the Liberal Party won against Senator Bongbong Marcos and four others in the closest vice-presidential election since 1965. Marcos put the result under protest in the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.
In October 2019, the Presidential Electoral Tribunal released its report on Marcos's electoral protest against Robredo on Marcos's pilot provinces of Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental, and showed that Robredo had increased her lead by 15,742 votes. The tribunal voted to defer making a decision on the protest and instead proceeded with Marcos's plea to nullify the votes from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao.
Those who dissented from the decision said that the protest should have been dismissed, as Marcos had failed to recover votes from his 3 pilot provinces, citing the rules of the tribunal. They were overruled when the others said that Marcos's plea on the ARMM provinces should also be resolved.
In July 2016, Vice President Robredo was appointed to head the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), but resigned in December 2016 after being told to stop attending all cabinet meetings, amid her criticism of the administration's war on drugs. The president later told his allies to stop trying to impeach Robredo.
In the 17th Congress, Representative Pantaleon Alvarez from Davao del Norte was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives in July 2016. Midway during the 17th Congress, former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who was the representative from Pampanga, ousted Alvarez from the speakership. The ouster was reportedly due to a dispute between Alvarez and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, the president's daughter, when she branded him as being from the opposition when she launched the Hugpong ng Pagbabago (transl. Alliance for Change; HNP), a regional political party in the Davao Region of which both Davao del Norte and Davao City are a part.
In the 2019 midterm Senate election, the opposition to Duterte fielded the Otso Diretso (transl. Straight Eight) coalition, while the administration fielded its own slate under the Hugpong ng Pagbabago banner. Hugpong won 9 of the 12 seats contested, while Otso Diretso won no seats. Cynthia Villar, wife of defeated 2010 presidential candidate Manny Villar, topped the election, while 2013's Senate election topnotcher and 2016 defeated presidential candidate Grace Poe finished second. While Sara Duterte's Hugpong won in the Davao Region, they notably failed to unseat Alvarez, and PDP–Laban defeated Hugpong's candidate for governor of Davao del Norte, and won both of the province's seats in the House of Representatives.
Administration-allied parties also won in the House of Representatives, but there was a dispute on who should be Speaker. President Duterte brokered a term-sharing agreement between Alan Peter Cayetano and Lord Allan Velasco, with the former serving the first 15 months of the term and Velasco the final 18 months. Meanwhile, Tito Sotto was re-elected as Senate President.
In November 2019, the president challenged Robredo to co-chair the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD), the office that oversees the war on drugs, along with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency chief, which she accepted. A week later, Duterte said that he would fire Robredo if she shared state secrets about the drug war. Several days later, Duterte said he could not trust Robredo after she asked the government for a list of high-value targets in the drug war. Robredo replied, "He should tell me straight if he wants me out." A day later, Duterte fired Robredo as co-chair of the ICAD.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, the government was criticized by the opposition for its response to the pandemic. Robredo had a televised speech in August claiming that the government had no plans on how to resolve the pandemic and shared ten recommendations on how to resolve it. Duterte himself, in a separate speech days later, asked Robredo not to "add fuel to the fire".
In June 2020, American boxing promoter Bob Arum said that Senator Manny Pacquiao had confided to him that he would run for president in 2022. Pacquiao later denied talking about politics with Arum. On December 3, 2020, Pacquiao was elected party president of PDP–Laban, of which President Duterte is the party chairman. On May 3, 2021, when Pacquiao was asked about his intentions of running for president, he replied "for now, let's not think about that."
In March 2021, former Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio launched "1Sambayan" (read as "isambayan", meaning "one nation"), a coalition that aimed to place one lone candidate against Duterte's endorsed successor. Carpio aimed to avoid Vote splitting, pointing out that Duterte had won over Mar Roxas and Grace Poe in 2016 as those who were against him were not united.
1Sambayan considered Robredo, Moreno, Poe, and Senator Nancy Binay as candidates. Both Moreno and Pacquiao, with the former being one of 1Sambayan's choices, stated that they did not want to talk about politics during the pandemic. Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV said that there was never an offer from 1Sambayan for him to run, but if that Robredo did not seek the presidency in 2022, he would consider entering the presidential race.
A dispute within the PDP–Laban began on March 12, 2021 when Senator Pacquiao began to criticize President Duterte and the government regarding the dispute in the South China Sea, alleged corruption in the government agencies under the Duterte administration, the government handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the endorsement of candidates for the 2022 presidential election, leading to the creation of two factions within the party.
On March 23, 2021, Senate President Tito Sotto stated that he and Panfilo Lacson were being pushed to form a tandem. Sotto said both of them were yet to be convinced on this, and when asked if he would run for higher office in 2022, he said that he had not yet made a decision. Lacson later declined the offer from 1Sambayan in a letter to Justice Carpio, in which he cited his principal sponsorship of the Anti-Terrorism Law as "inconsistent and incongruent" to the goals of the coalition.
On June 12, 2021, 1Sambayan announced their six initial nominees to go through the coalition's selection process for a presidential and vice-presidential tandem. The nominees (whom members of the coalition may vote for as their candidate for either post) included: senator Poe, vice president Robredo, former Senator Trillanes, human rights lawyer and former senatorial candidate Chel Diokno, incumbent house deputy speaker Vilma Santos-Recto, and CIBAC representative and house deputy speaker Eddie Villanueva. Moreno and Binay declined 1Sambayan's offer to run under their coalition. Soon after, Senator Poe and Congressman Santos also withdrew their names from contention. At the same time, Vice President Robredo, former Senator Trillanes, and Congressman Villanueva expressed their support for unity in 2022 under 1Sambayan.
Lacson and Sotto formally announced their candidacies on July, with their campaign to be launched in August. Lacson was later sworn in as a member of the Partido para sa Demokratikong Reporma (transl. Party for Democratic Reforms), the party of former secretary of Defense Renato de Villa who lost the 1998 presidential election. On September 8, Lacson and Sotto formally launched their tandem via social media, in a taped production in an undisclosed studio. The tandem filed their candidacies on October 6.
Isko Moreno, who had returned to the political limelight after being elected Mayor of Manila, was expected to take his oath as a member of Aksyon Demokratiko (transl. Democratic Action), the party founded by Senator Raul Roco after resigning from the National Unity Party. However, this did not happen as an unexpectedly large number of people turned up on vaccination sites, particularly in Manila. Moreno was subsequently elected party president a week later. He later announced his presidential bid on September 22 with Dr. Willie Ong as his running mate. They filed their certificates of candidacy (COCs) on October 4.
On September 30, 2021, 1Sambayan nominated Robredo as their standard bearer. On October 7, Robredo accepted the nomination and announced that she would run for President. She later filed her certificate of candidacy on the same day as an independent. Robredo explained that she was running as an independent to show that she is open to making alliances. After Vice-President Robredo announced her presidential candidacy, several sources from the Liberal Party indicated that Senator Francis Pangilinan would be her running mate for her presidential bid. Pangilinan filed his candidacy for vice president a day after Robredo.
Back in January 2020, Bongbong Marcos had confirmed that he would be running "for a national position" in 2022, although he did not specify which position. On September 21, 2021, the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP; transl. Federal Party of the Philippines) nominated Marcos to run for president. During the national convention of the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL; transl. New Society Movement) in Binangonan, the party founded by his father, he had already been nominated as that party's candidate for president. Marcos, who was still a member of the Nacionalista Party, thanked the KBL for the nomination, but said that he would announce his own plans "when the time comes." On October 5, Marcos announced his presidential candidacy. Marcos then resigned from the Nacionalistas and was sworn in at the PFP chairman. Marcos ultimately filed his presidential candidacy under the PFP on October 6.
Davao City mayor Sara Duterte, despite being a frontrunner in early opinion polls, did not file a candidacy for a national position; instead she nominated for re-election in the Davao mayoral race, despite having previously stated on July 9, 2021, that she was open to running for president. On the final day for the filing of candidacies, Mayor Duterte did not show up; instead, Ronald dela Rosa filed his candidacy for president, stating that he was open to being substituted by Duterte. Dela Rosa was running alongside Go, who had earlier filed his candidacy for the vice presidency on October 2, despite calls from the PDP-Laban Cusi wing for him to run for president. At the end of the period for the filing of the Certificates of Canvass (COCs), a total of 97 individuals had manifested their intention to run for President, and 29 did for Vice-President.
On November 9, Duterte withdrew from the mayoral race in Davao. On November 11, she resigned from Hugpong ng Pagbabago and joined Lakas–CMD on the same day. She filed her candidacy for the vice presidential post on November 13, 2021, substituting Lyle Fernando Uy. Partido Federal ng Pilipinas adopted Duterte as their vice presidential candidate. Dela Rosa and Go both withdrew their candidacies on the same day. A few days later, Go launched his campaign for the presidential post. Go explained that he withdrew his bid to run for vice president, to avoid complicating Sara Duterte's vice presidential campaign. President Duterte was reported to be his running mate and was to file his candidacy on November 15, but filed for senator instead.