Senate race: Go leads early count; Bam, Kiko in
Partial and unofficial tally aggregated from transparency servers using official data from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) showed President Marcos’ Alyansa slate dominating the 2025 midterm elections.
Three of the “Duterten,” or allies of former President Rodrigo Duterte, were in the Magic 12, while opposition’s returning senators Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV and Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan both ranked high despite not being among the strongest contenders in preelection surveys.
Based on the tally as of 9:54 p.m. on Monday, with 69.59 percent of election returns (ERs) transmitted, reelectionist Christopher “Bong” Go garnered the most number of votes at 24,105,805.
Go ranked first in the last “Ulat ng Bayan” Pulse Asia survey from April 20 to 24 and second in the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey from May 2 to 6, commissioned by Stratbase group.
He was followed by Aquino, who left the Liberal Party (LP) last year and is now running under the banner of Katipunan ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino political party, with 19,190,010 votes. Aquino ranked 14th in the latest Pulse survey and 16th in the SWS survey.
Third among the senatorial candidates was reelectionist Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa with 18,432,639 votes, followed by incumbent ACT-CIS party list Rep. Erwin Tulfo with 15,389,693 votes.
Surprises
In fifth place was Pangilinan, the lone senatorial candidate from the LP, with 14,017,321 votes. Pangilinan was 19th in Pulse Asia and 17th in SWS.
Behind them were returning senators Ping Lacson (13,719,661) in the sixth spot and Tito Sotto (13,496,911) in eighth place. Both are part of the administration-backed slate.
Iglesia ni Cristo member and incumbent Sagip party list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta, who was never among the front-runners in preelection polls, was in seventh spot with 13,694,787 votes. Marcoleta was 17th in Pulse Asia and 18th in SWS.
Reelectionist Sen. Pia Cayetano is poised to join her brother Alan Peter at the Senate as she garnered 13,181,344 votes.
Incumbent Las Piñas Rep. Camille Villar, who is officially part of the President’s slate but also got the endorsement of Vice President Sara Duterte, obtained 12,152,481 votes. She will likely sit in the Senate with her brother Sen. Mark Villar, who is halfway through his six-year term.
Meanwhile, presidential sister Imee Marcos is also a contender for a fresh six-year term after landing 11th place in the senatorial race with 11,966,694 votes.
Clinching the 12th spot was reelectionist Sen. Lito Lapid, who is running under the Alyansa banner with 11,893,896 votes.
Behind him were possible contenders for the last spots of the 12-seat senator race, with broadcaster Ben Tulfo at 13th (10,915,727 votes), followed by Alyansa senatorial candidates incumbent Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. (10,721,313), incumbent Makati City Mayor Abby Binay (10,574,393), and former Interior Secretary Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos Jr. (10,447,430).
Unofficial tallies
The Comelec on Monday night disavowed partial and unofficial tallies for the senatorial, party list and local races that surfaced on media networks supposedly coming from the poll body.
“If there is a partial tally, the data may have been sourced from Comelec, but the tally didn’t come from us. The one issuing partial, unofficial ‘running’ tally of results is a different [entity],” Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco told reporters via Viber.
Laudiangco clarified that only unofficial results per precinct are available at the Comelec microsite, 2025electionresults.comelec.gov.ph.
“Never did the Comelec come out with unofficial tally or aggregate or running total, whether manual or automated, outside canvassing. The law only allows the Comelec to aggregate or sum [up] after canvass,” he said.
He added that the Comelec will release unofficial results only per precinct, as part of transparency, and the official canvassed results, whether full or partial.
“This is in compliance with the law,” he added.
Delayed transmission
Meanwhile, accredited citizen watchdog Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) and media network Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) expressed concern over the delay in the transmission of votes to their transparency servers, despite the Comelec’s earlier assurances that election results this year would be faster due to major technical upgrades.
As of 9 p.m. on Monday, two hours after polling precincts were supposed to close, the transparency servers of PPCRV and KBP where the partial and unofficial results of the May 12, 2025, national and local elections remained empty.
At that time, the partial and official count of election results in the Comelec website showed that it has already received 63,195 election returns from precincts across the country—or 67.67 percent of all the 93,387 expected ERs.
PPCRV spokesperson Ana Singson said this was “unusual” and they were “concerned” about the unexplained delay.
“The sad news is that we have not had access to any of that data, so it is of concern to us. We have been in constant touch with Comelec. We have not yet received our response,” Singson told reporters at its command center in Manila.
She said they only received files from the Comelec server but these were empty, except for a “header” title.
“I have to say that this is quite unusual and that this has not happened since 2010,” she explained. —WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH
