A gunfight broke out inside the Philippine Senate compound in Manila on July 1, 2025, in what Foreign Policy described as the latest violent escalation in a deepening power struggle between two of the country’s most powerful political dynasties — the Marcoses and the Dutertes.
The shooting occurred during a hearing related to the ongoing political and legal battle between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and former President Rodrigo Duterte’s family, according to Foreign Policy. A security aide opened fire inside the compound, and at least one person was wounded. The incident sent staff and senators scrambling and temporarily suspended proceedings inside the chamber.
The two dynasties were once allies. Marcos and Sara Duterte — Rodrigo’s daughter and the current Vice President — ran together on a unified ticket in the 2022 elections and won by a landslide, with Marcos taking the presidency and Sara the vice presidency. That alliance has since collapsed entirely, according to Foreign Policy, and the rupture has grown steadily more confrontational through 2024 and into 2025.
The falling out has played out across multiple institutions simultaneously. Sara Duterte was impeached by the Philippine House of Representatives in February 2025 on charges that included alleged misuse of confidential funds and a reported threat against Marcos and his family, Foreign Policy reported. Her impeachment trial before the Senate was already underway when the shooting occurred, making the chamber itself an active arena in the feud.
Rodrigo Duterte’s situation has added a second, international dimension to the crisis. The former president was transferred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague in March 2025, facing charges of crimes against humanity linked to his administration’s brutal war on drugs, which killed thousands of Filipinos between 2016 and 2022. Foreign Policy noted that his detention abroad has not quieted his family’s political presence at home — if anything, it has sharpened it.
The Duterte camp has accused the Marcos administration of orchestrating the ICC transfer as a political manoeuvre, framing Rodrigo as a target of persecution rather than a defendant facing international justice. The Marcos camp has denied this. Both sides have used the Senate as the primary battlefield, with hearings on Sara’s impeachment drawing intense public attention and, now, a literal exchange of gunfire.
The Philippines has a long and documented history of political dynasties wielding power through a combination of electoral dominance, regional patronage networks, and, at times, violence. Foreign Policy reported that the country’s democratic institutions have repeatedly been tested by the concentration of power in a small number of family networks, a pattern that long predates both the Marcoses and the Dutertes.
What makes this particular conflict notable is that it involves the two families who jointly held the executive branch just three years ago. The speed of the break, and the intensity of what followed, has placed the Senate — ordinarily a legislative body — at the centre of what is effectively a succession battle being fought through impeachment proceedings, international courts, and now gunfire.
The shooting did not result in deaths, according to Foreign Policy, and the suspect was taken into custody. Proceedings at the Senate were expected to resume. But the incident has become the most visceral symbol yet of how completely the Marcos-Duterte alliance has unravelled, and how far the fallout has moved beyond the boundaries of ordinary political competition.
Foreign Policy reported that both dynasties retain significant political bases — the Marcoses in Ilocos Norte and in Malacañang Palace, the Dutertes in Davao and across Mindanao — and that neither side shows any sign of standing down.
Source: https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/05/20/philippines-senate-gunfire-duterte-marcos
