An electoral tsunami

Apolitical tsunami has swept the nation, changing drastically the political – and economic – landscape this year, the outlook of the 2028 presidential elections and the nature of governance beyond.

The opposition overwhelmed the Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas (ABP) of President Marcos Jr. Monday, May 12. BBM’s Alyansa loyalists won only five of the 12 senatorial seats at stake, while diehards of former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte (RRD) snatched another five.

ABP’s winning five: No. 4 Erwin Tulfo (Lakas CMD) 16.815 million votes; No. 7 Ping Lacson (Ind), 14.857 million: No. 8 Tito Sotto (NPC), 14.596 million; No. 9 Pia Cayetano (NP), 14.306 million and No. 11 Lito Lapid (NPC), 13.121 million. Total votes of the Alyansa Five Hardcore: 73.695 million.

The five Duterte winners: No. 1 Bong Go (PDP Laban), 26.488 million votes; No. 2 Bato dela Rosa (PDP Laban), 20.271 million votes and No. 6 Rodante Marcoleta (Ind.), 14.91million votes. Plus two Duterte sympathizers, ex-Alyansa: No. 10 Camille Villar (NP), 13.359 million votes and Imee Marcos (NP), 13.037 million votes. Total votes of the Duterte Five: 88.065 million.

Two comebacking former Liberal Party stalwart senators, Bam Aquino Aquino and Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, saved two of the top five senatorial slots for themselves, No. 2 and No. 5, respectively, with combined votes of 35.725 million – Aquino 20.637 million; Kiko, 15.088 million. Senator Aquino ran for reelection in 2019 but lost.

Total votes of the Winning 12: 197.485 million, of which the D30 Five got 44.59 percent; the ABP Hardcore Five 37.3 percent and the two Leni pinks, 18 percent. Together, the D30 Five and the Leni pinks commanded 62.59 percent of total votes cast for the Top 12.

Bam and Kiko scored a stunning victory, after opposition vice president Leni Robredo lost the presidential election to BBM in 2022. As Robredo’s runningmate, Pangilinan lost to Vice President Sara Duterte, the other half of Marcos’ 2022 UniTeam.

Alyansa loyalists winning only five of the 12 senatorial seats at stake is a disheartening political setback for BBM, who was elected in 2022 under the UniTeam with Sara Duterte. BBM won with the most number of votes ever – 31.62 million, making him the most popularly president. Sadly, much of his unprecedented political capital earned three years ago was not evident in this year’s midterm balloting.

It is the worst midterm election showing by any incumbent administration in 54 years. In the 1971 midterm senatorial elections, the Nacionalista Party of president Ferdinand Marcos Sr., BBM’s dad, lost to the opposition Liberal Party, three senatorial seats to five. Marcos turned that political debacle, his worst, into triumph. He declared martial law in 1972 and went on to rule for another 15 years until People Power of 1986.

This May, the best ABP showing was the disappointing fourth place finish for its most popular candidate, broadcaster Tulfo, whose 16.815 million vote tally was 9.673 million votes behind No. 1 Go’s 26.488 million; 3.822 million votes behind No. 2 Aquino’s 20.637 million and 3.456 million votes less than the 20.271 million total of surprise third placer Bato dela Rosa.

Tulfo’s 16.815 million votes out of the 57.61 million votes cast on election day (an 82.57 percent voter turnout) indicated only 29 of every 100 voters voted for a BBM candidate.

Go and Bato are poster boys of Duterte, in detention since March 11, 2025 at the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands, charged with crime against humanity.

Go was PRRD’s long-time assistant and gofer. Former four-star police general Dela Rosa managed PRRD’s violent war on drugs that critics claim killed from 6,000 to 30,000 victims, most of them innocent civilians.

Supposedly, they are among ranking officials to be indicted for alleged crime against humanity before the ICC. Instead, the two guys have been returned to the Senate with scintillating mandates.

Go’s awesome 26.488 million votes mean 46 of every 100 voters voted for a Duterte-backed candidate. Pro-Duterte voters outnumbered pro-BBM voters by a ratio of 1.6 for every one of the latter’s. For every 100 voters, 46 were pro-Duterte and only 29 pro-BBM.

Duterte bets broke the once impenetrable Solid North of BBM, with Go making it in the Top Five and Bam Aquino getting more votes in the region than Alyansa bets, except Imee.

But in Duterte’s Solid South (Davao Region – Davao de Oro, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental, Davao Occidental), Alyansa candidates, except Camille Villar and Imee Marcos, were shut out of the Magic 12. Camille Villar placed 11th in the region and Imee Marcos, 12th. Villar and Imee broke away from the Alyansa in the last month of the campaign.

Undeterred, the unflappable BBM issued a call for unity to the opposition winners.

“To the newly elected, regardless of party or coalition, I extend my hand. Let us move forward together – with open minds and a common purpose,” the President pleaded, adding, “Governance is a shared responsibility, a mission that requires unity and burden sharing for the common good.”

The winners, he said, were “put into office by the electorate to face the task head-on and listen to and act on the people’s daily burdens, including inflation, jobs and corruption.”

“Public service goes beyond elections. The work of nation-building needs all who are ready to serve,” the President said.

BBM recalled his dad’s rallying cry: “If we are to prevail, we must prevail as Filipinos – for it is the only way to endure. If we are to attain our goals, we must march forward, not to the past but to the future. And we must do this as one family, a nation united.”

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