Millions vote in Philippines midterms as Marcos-Duterte feud heats up
About 68 million Filipinos are eligible to vote in mid-terms that will decide the fate of a long-running power struggle between the country's two biggest political dynasties
The senate races pit candidates backed by President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr against those supported by Vice-President Sara Duterte, daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte
If Marcos' senate picks win more seats, it increases his chances of impeaching Sara Duterte for alleged misuse of state funds - this would bar her from seeking the presidency in 2028
Also on the ballot are candidates for 317-member Congress, hundreds of governors, mayors and city councillors
Voting runs from 07:00 local time (00:00 BST; 23:00 GMT) to 19:00, with unofficial results expected soon after
Millions vote in Philippines midterms as Marcos-Duterte feud heats up
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Filipino forces and villagers struggle to live in China's shadow in disputed waters
WEST YORK ISLAND, South China Sea -- Overwhelmed after setting foot for the first time on a far-flung but picturesque island in the disputed South China Sea, a Filipino army official knelt to kiss the shore. She held a small Philippine flag that fluttered in the breeze. 'This is just so beautiful,' Philippines military spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla said of West York Island, one of nine islands, reefs and atolls occupied by Filipino forces in the long-contested waters. 'This solidifies our resolve to fight for this place whatever happens.' The 18.6-hectare (46-acre) droplet-shaped island, called Likas by Filipinos, could easily become an eco-tourism draw in tropical Asia with its powdery white-sand beaches, turquoise waters and giant sea turtle sanctuaries. Padilla expressed hope it could someday be opened to Filipino travelers and tourists from across the world. But that longstanding aspiration by Philippine officials has been stymied by a tangle of territorial conflicts involving a militarily superior China. Beijing claims virtually the entire South China Sea, a vital global trade route with rich undersea deposits of gas and oil. It has increasingly flexed its military might, including its navy — the largest in the world — to strengthen its grip on a strategic waterway it says it has owned since ancient times. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan contest China's expansive claims with their own, and the territorial stand-offs have increasingly flared into cat-and-mouse confrontations at sea in recent years. The long-simmering disputes are also a delicate fault line in the regional rivalry between Beijing and Washington. Both former President Joe Biden and his successor, Donald Trump, have condemned China's growing aggression in the contested waters, including its coast guard's use of powerful water cannons, blinding military-grade lasers and dangerous sea maneuvers against the coast guard and navy of the Philippines, Washington's oldest treaty ally in Asia. Under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who took office in mid-2022, the Philippines has intensified a campaign to expose China's increasingly assertive actions by capturing them in video and photographs. The images have then been made public in the hope that international pressure would prompt Beijing to back down to avoid damage to its reputation. The Philippine military invited a small group of journalists, including two from The Associated Press, in a dayslong naval patrol of the South China Sea territories claimed by Manila and on visits to navy and marine forces deployed to guard them. During the patrol, which ended over the weekend, the BRP Andres Bonifacio navy ship carrying the journalists warned a number of Chinese coast guard ships and suspected Chinese militia vessels by two-way radio to move away from Philippines-claimed waters. The Chinese ships responded by asserting their sovereignty in the offshore region without undertaking any provocative actions. On West York Island, two Filipino marines in camouflage uniforms stood guard with M4 assault rifles under a Philippine flag. One used binoculars to scan the surrounding waters for Chinese or Vietnamese ships passing by from a distance. One of the farthest islands in the disputed waters from the nearest Philippine province of Palawan, West York is a difficult and risky post, where Filipino forces see nothing beyond the small island but sea. Military personnel can occasionally call their loved ones during their two-month deployment, but the internet connection is spotty, especially during the typhoon season that starts in June, according to military personnel on the island. They grow eggplants, okra and chili peppers and raise goats and chickens to augment food provisions delivered by navy ships from Palawan. There is a makeshift basketball court to help while away off-duty time and ease the feeling of isolation. 'It's being away from your family,' Padilla said. 'At the end of the day, you go home to an empty room.' Marine Col. Joel Bonavente, who was among the visiting military officials, told AP that military personnel posted in the remote outpost get additional pay to compensate for the "hazard and loneliness.' On Thitu, the largest Philippines-claimed island, which lies west of West York, civilians have thrived for decades in a small fishing village alongside the military forces. An AP journalist who visited Thitu several years ago saw an island with only a few low-slung wooden and concrete buildings and a gravel airstrip that was being eroded by the constant pounding of waves. There were a few shanties mainlanders had moved to from Palawan in exchange for a monthly government provision of groceries, rice and cash in a bid to grow a civilian community. Dramatic infrastructure improvements have occurred through the years on the 37.2-hectare (92-acre) island, which now has a concrete runway, a huge aircraft hangar, a wharf, a storm shelter and concrete roads running through the fishing village, military encampments and a three-story coast guard surveillance center. A high school building is nearly finished near a seawater desalination facility. 'I want to stay on this island because my blood pressure remains stable without the wide selection of fatty food you find in the city like hamburgers,' said Nenita Bania, a 59-year-old villager who has lived with her husband on Thitu for 12 years. 'Lonely? Not really. It's not the case if you're with family,' she told the AP aboard an air force C-130 aircraft, as she and other villagers hitched a ride back to Thitu from Palawan province. Living in China's shadow in the disputed waters, however, has been challenging, said Larry Hugo, 47, who leads a group of at least 114 fishermen. More than a decade ago, China transformed seven disputed South China Sea reefs into island bases, where Chinese coast guard and navy ships can now refuel and obtain supplies for longer periods far from the Chinese mainland. One of China's artificial islands, Subi, has a military-grade runway and lies just 26 kilometers (16 miles) from Thitu. 'There were no Chinese ships before but now it's a big problem because they are all around our island,' Hugo said. 'They're guarding the reefs where we used to fish, and they block us so we can't venture far.' 'It's very dangerous,' he said. 'We have small boats and we may be run over and that'll be a big problem because we're far from civilization.'
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25 minutes ago
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Texas Republican to reintroduce legislation to increase penalties for assaulting police amid LA protests
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) is set to reintroduce legislation to increase penalties for assaulting police amid recent protests in Los Angeles. The legislation, which Gonzales previously introduced in 2023, aims to 'increase jail time and civil fines for assaulting a law enforcement officer or interfering with the performance of their official duties' and is named the Curbing Offenses on Policing Services Act (COPS Act) according to a Monday press release from Gonzales. 'The chaos unleashed by rioters in Los Angeles this weekend is anything but a peaceful protest—it's anarchy,' Gonzales said in the release. 'Radical activists damaged Border Patrol and ICE vehicles while these agents were on duty, and as a result, injuries were reported. It's time to highlight a very clear message: if you harm a law enforcement officer, you're going to face severe consequences,' he added. 'This week, I will introduce the COPS Act in Congress to increase charges for anyone who assaults our law enforcement personnel or keeps them from performing their official duties.' According to Gonzales's release, the COPS Act looks to take actions that include increasing the amount of time spent in prison by an extra year 'for anyone who forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates, or interferes with federal officers in performing their duties or as a result of their duties.' Trump deployed 2,000 National Guard members to the Los Angeles area on Saturday amid protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said previously the action was due to 'violent mobs' recently attacking 'Federal Law Enforcement Agents carrying out basic deportation operations.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
30 minutes ago
President Donald Trump pushes ahead with his maximalist immigration campaign in face of LA protests
WASHINGTON -- Donald Trump made no secret of his willingness to exert a maximalist approach to enforcing immigration laws and keeping order as he campaigned to return to the White House. The fulfillment of that pledge is now on full display in Los Angeles. The president has put hundreds of National Guard troops on the streets to quell protests over his administration's immigration raids, a deployment that state and city officials say has only inflamed tensions. Trump called up the California National Guard over the objections of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom — the first time in 60 years a president has done so — and is deploying active-duty troops to support the guard. By overriding Newsom, Trump is already going beyond what he did to respond to Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, when he warned he could send troops to contain demonstrations that turned violent if governors in the states did not act to do so themselves. Trump said in September of that year that he 'can't call in the National Guard unless we're requested by a governor' and that 'we have to go by the laws.' But now, the past and current president is moving swiftly, with little internal restraint to test the bounds of his executive authority in order to deliver on his promise of mass deportations. What remains to be seen is whether Americans will stand by him once it's operationalized nationwide, as Trump looks to secure billions from Congress to dramatically expand the country's detention and deportation operations. For now, Trump is betting that they will. 'If we didn't do the job, that place would be burning down," Trump told reporters Monday, speaking about California. 'I feel we had no choice. ... I don't want to see what happened so many times in this country.' The protests began to unfold Friday as federal authorities arrested immigrants in several locations throughout the sprawling city, including in the fashion district of Los Angeles and at a Home Depot. The anger over the administration's actions quickly spread, with protests in Chicago and Boston as demonstrations in the southern California city also continued Monday. But Trump and other administration officials remained unbowed, capitalizing on the images of burning cars, graffiti and Mexican flags — which, while not dominant, started to become the defining images of the unrest — to bolster their law-and-order cause. Leaders in the country's most populous state were similarly defiant. California officials sued the Trump administration Monday, with the state's attorney general, Rob Bonta, arguing that the deployment of troops 'trampled' on the state's sovereignty and pushing for a restraining order. The initial deployment of 300 National Guard troops was expected to quickly expand to the full 4,000 that has been authorized by Trump. The state's senior Democratic senator, Alex Padilla, said in an interview that 'this is absolutely a crisis of Trump's own making.' 'There are a lot of people who are passionate about speaking up for fundamental rights and respecting due process, but the deployment of National Guard only serves to escalate tensions and the situation,' Padilla told The Associated Press. 'It's exactly what Donald Trump wanted to do.' Padilla slammed the deployment as 'counterproductive' and said the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department was not advised ahead of the federalization of the National Guard. His office has also pushed the Pentagon for a justification on the deployment, and 'as far as we're told, the Department of Defense isn't sure what the mission is here," Padilla added. Much of this was predictable. During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump pledged to conduct the largest domestic deportation operation in American history to expel millions of immigrants in the country without legal status. He often praised President Dwight D. Eisenhower's military-style immigration raids, and the candidate and his advisers suggested they would have broad power to deploy troops domestically to enact Trump's far-reaching immigration and public safety goals. Trump's speedy deployment in California of troops against those whom the president has alluded to as 'insurrectionists' on social media is a sharp contrast to his decision to issue no order or formal request for National Guard troops during the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, despite his repeated and false assertions that he had made such an offer. Trump is now surrounded by officials who have no interest in constraining his power. In 2020, Trump's then-Pentagon chief publicly rebuked Trump's threat to send in troops using the Insurrection Act, an 1807 law that empowers the president to use the military within the U.S. and against American citizens. Current Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signaled support on his personal X account for deploying troops to California, writing, 'The National Guard, and Marines if need be, stand with ICE,' referring to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The Defense Department said Monday it is deploying about 700 active-duty Marines to Los Angeles to support National Guard troops already on the ground to respond to the protests. Protesters over the weekend blocked off a major freeway and burned self-driving cars as police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades in clashes that encompassed several downtown blocks in Los Angeles and led to several dozen arrests. Much of the city saw no violence. But the protests prompted Trump to issue the directive Saturday mobilizing the California National Guard over Newsom's objections. The president and his top immigration aides accused the governor of mismanaging the protests, with border czar Tom Homan asserting in a Fox News interview Monday that Newsom stoked anti-ICE sentiments and waited two days to declare unlawful assembly in the city. Trump told Newsom in a phone call Friday evening to get the situation in Los Angeles under control, a White House official said. It was only when the administration felt Newsom was not restoring order in the city — and after Trump watched the situation escalate for 24 hours and White House officials saw imagery of federal law enforcement officers with lacerations and other injuries — that the president moved to deploy the Guard, according to the official, who was granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations. 'He's an incompetent governor,' Trump said Monday. 'Look at the job he's doing in California. He's destroying one of our great states.' Local law enforcement officials said Los Angeles police responded as quickly as they could once the protests erupted, and Newsom repeatedly asserted that state and city authorities had the situation under control. 'Los Angeles is no stranger to demonstrations and protests and rallies and marches,' Padilla said. 'Local law enforcement knows how to handle this and has a rapport with the community and community leaders to be able to allow for that.' The aggressive moves prompted blowback from some of Trump's erstwhile allies. Ileana Garcia, a Florida state senator who in 2016 founded the group Latinas for Trump and was hired to direct Latino outreach, called the recent escalation 'unacceptable and inhumane.' 'I understand the importance of deporting criminal aliens, but what we are witnessing are arbitrary measures to hunt down people who are complying with their immigration hearings — in many cases, with credible fear of persecution claims — all driven by a Miller-like desire to satisfy a self-fabricated deportation goal," said Garcia, referring to Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff and key architect of Trump's immigration crackdown. The tactics could be just a preview to what more could come from the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress. GOP lawmakers are working to pass a massive tax-and-border package that includes billions to hire thousands of new officers for Border Patrol and for ICE. The goal, under the Trump-backed plan, is to remove 1 million immigrants without status annually and house 100,000 people in immigration detention centers.
