Imee Marcos fails to get ‘Waray vote’ in Senate run

Sen. Imee Marcos–Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau

TACLOBAN CITY—Sen. Imee Marcos appeared to have performed poorly in her reelection bid in Eastern Visayas, a region with over 3.2 million voters and often regarded as a stronghold of the Marcos family.

In the provinces of Eastern Samar, Northern Samar and Southern Leyte, the older sister of President Marcos failed to break into the so-called Magic 12 during the May 12 elections, based on the partial and unofficial results from the Commission on Elections.

In Eastern Samar, former Sen. Bam Aquino led the race with 113,358 votes as of Thursday while Marcos ranked 16th with 58,899 votes.

READ: Imee Marcos’ black campaign apt, ‘shows grim future’ – groups

In Northern Samar, reelectionist Sen. Bong Go topped the race with 144,381 votes while Imee ranked 15th with 71,462 votes.

Home province

In Leyte, the home province of Imee’s mother, former first lady Imelda Marcos, the senator also underperformed in the senatorial race. As of Thursday, Go led the senatorial count in Leyte with 456,974 votes while Imee was fourth with 233,307 votes.

In Tacloban City, Leyte’s capital city and part of Speaker Martin Romualdez’s congressional district, Imee was only second to Go with 42,313 votes.

In Southern Leyte, Imee ranked 13th with 50,270 votes. In Samar, she ranked 10th with 216,454 votes.

In past interviews, Imee expressed confidence in winning the “Waray vote,” citing her mother’s Leyte roots.