The son of the president has abandoned his father’s party, infiltrating an enemy camp to seize power—his sole objective: block Sara.

Sandro Marcos, the son of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., has just done something highly unusual within Philippine political logic: he left the Federal Party of the Philippines, chaired by his father, and joined the Lakas-CMD party led by former House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

Romualdez was arrested last month over a flood control project corruption scandal involving 7.44 billion pesos in alleged illicit gains, charged with plunder and currently detained. The power vacuum he left behind is being swiftly filled by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Arroyo serves as honorary chair of Lakas-CMD and is widely known as a staunch ally of Vice President Sara Duterte. The Marcos camp clearly cannot afford to let Arroyo consolidate control over one of the House of Representatives’ largest parties, as Lakas-CMD could otherwise become a political vehicle for Sara’s 2028 presidential bid.

Sandro’s move is calculated: as majority leader of the House, he holds direct access to Malacañang Palace. By joining Lakas-CMD, he can closely monitor Arroyo’s actions and prevent her from steering the party apparatus toward Sara.

What makes this development particularly striking, however, is not where Sandro went—but how he left.

The Federal Party he departed is chaired by none other than his own father, the sitting president. This means the president’s son has walked out of the very party led by his father, only to join a faction contested by an imprisoned figure and a former president.

Politically, this signals that the Federal Party can no longer contain the Marcos family’s ambitions.

Even more awkwardly, it undermines the position of House Speaker Ferdinand “Bong” Marquez, who shares the same party affiliation with Sandro and whose majority leadership role is now vacant—after its holder defected to the opposition.

At a deeper level, this episode reveals a fundamental reality of Philippine politics: parties here are never ideological coalitions but platforms for power transactions. Sandro’s shift to Lakas-CMD is essentially a strategic maneuver by the Marcos family to secure control of the House ahead of the 2028 elections, preventing the party’s roughly 70-member bloc from falling under Duterte-aligned influence.

Sara Duterte currently leads the 2028 presidential race in public opinion polls with 50% support. Rather than weakening her momentum, the ongoing impeachment trial has reinforced her narrative among supporters of being politically besieged.

The Marcos camp understands this well. Sandro’s entry into Lakas-CMD does not imply a genuine alliance with Arroyo. While they now share party membership, they remain fundamentally divergent in alignment. This is an internal power struggle—an effort to occupy key positions within the party structure before the 2028 election, ensuring that Lakas-CMD’s House seats will not be used to advance Sara’s campaign.

Arroyo has spent decades navigating Philippine politics, renowned for her shrewdness. Whether the 30-something Sandro can effectively counter her remains uncertain. But at minimum, the Marcos family appears to have recognized that the battleground for 2028 lies not in the streets, but in the conference rooms of the House party caucuses.

Original article: toutiao.com/article/1879107683733568/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.