Bam, Kiko pin comeback hopes on old ‘Pink Magic’
- Will the “Pink magic” carry them this time? Senatorial bets Kiko Pangilinan and Bam Aquino hope so, as they bank on their advocacies and voter support inspired by their biggest endorser, former VP Leni Robredo.
- Pangilinan will revive his VP campaign messaging, which is to work on lowering the prices of rice and basic commodities. For Aquino, it’s his advocacy for education reforms and free college admissions.
- Pangilinan and Aquino remain outside the winning “Magic 12” in the latest surveys, but both remain confident of pulling off an upset in the next three months on the stump.
Staging a comeback to the Senate may be doubly hard for Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan and Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV, as they emerge from a political opposition that suffered a devastating loss in the 2022 national elections.
But this time around, both hope to win by sticking to “gut issues,” like food security and free tuition, and by not being combative on the campaign stage.
Pangilinan is expected to revive his vice presidential campaign messaging, which is to work on lowering the prices of rice and basic commodities. For Aquino, it’s his advocacy for education reforms and free college admissions.
All these while counting on the so-called Pink Magic or the volunteer spirit that defined the presidential run of then Vice President Leni Robredo, who remains their biggest endorser.
“Perhaps the biggest lesson (from 2022) is that we need to reach out more,” Pangilinan, who then vied as Robredo’s running mate.
“We need to be open. We should not fight those who have different points of view from us but instead be more considerate, convince them, so that we can expand our ranks,” he told reporters on Tuesday, Day One of the campaign period for senatorial candidates in the May 12 polls.
Aquino, who served as campaign manager of the Robredo-Pangilinan tandem, said this was part of the reason why he and Kiko chose to brand themselves as “independent”—rather than “opposition”—candidates.
No whiff of graft
They hope to position themselves as “alternative choices” to an electorate sick and tired of political gimmickry and backstabbing, he said.
“There are two major groups going head-to-head right now,” Aquino said, referring to President Marcos’ candidates under Partido Federal ng Pilipinas and the PDP-Laban allies of recently impeached Vice President Sara Duterte.
“For Senator Kiko and I, we want to make clear that our side is the Filipino people,” he said. “We have a good track record, no whiff of corruption, and we’re ready to serve the Filipino people again.”
Both Pangilinan and Aquino remain outside the winning “Magic 12” in the latest Social Weather Stations survey.
Should they win, they can be counted among the opposition figures in the Senate that would sit on the impeachment court for Duterte’s trial—if based on the timeline espoused by Senate President Francis Escudero.
‘Sluggish start’ nothing new
Both remain confident of pulling off an upset in the next three months on the stump.
“If you recall, in 2022, our start was just as sluggish,” Aquino said. “From today and in the next 90 days, the people will come out and see a good alternative in Kiko and Bam.”
The two candidates are part of a broader circle of like-minded opposition voices that include human rights lawyer Chel Diokno and Perci Cendaña of Akbayan partylist; and former Sen. Leila de Lima and former Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat of Mamamayang Liberal partylist.
The duo and their supporters kicked off the campaign period on Tuesday with a Mass at the University of the Philippines-Diliman’s Parish of the Holy Sacrifice.
In the afternoon, they held their first sortie by going to Dasmariñas, Cavite, where Pangilinan got 297,033 votes out of the 2.4 million voters in the province in 2022.
