Bam Aquino gets into Senate ‘Magic 12’ despite his doubts

Bam Aquino | PHOTO: Official Facebook page of Bam Aquino

MANILA, Philippines — Former Sen. Paolo Benigno Aquino IV — better known as Bam Aquino — believed he was destined to barely make the Senate “Magic 12.”

But on Monday, he managed to pull off a complete upset, landing No. 2 in the winning circle of 12, according to the partial and unofficial results for the midterm elections of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

At around 10 p.m. — just as partial results showed him with over 19 million votes — Aquino arrived at his campaign headquarters in Quezon City, where he was met by his jubilant campaign team chanting his jingle: “Bam, Bam Aquino!”

At the time, he was trailing only Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go, who was already expected to lead the elections, and his campaign partner, Francis Pangilinan, also at a comfortable fifth place with over 14 million votes.

READ: Go, Aquino, Dela Rosa top Senate race in partial, unofficial results

“Just forty minutes ago, I was lying in my bed, with my phone facing down,” Aquino told the crowd.

“I promised myself I wouldn’t look at it, and I was just watching ‘My Little Pony’… But I was already debating whether I should take a look or wait for a phone call.”

“When I took a look at my phone, [there were] 250 messages, 80 messages, all saying congratulations. At that point, I told myself: Maybe I really did win. But that result was really not what we had expected,” he added.

He shared how, on the morning of the elections, his team had expected him to land “at around No. 6-8 or at around No. 15. But this is a really unprecedented result.”

READ: VotePH2025 

“This is not just because of me, but because of everyone here. We all worked hard to go out and convince [people]. Everyone worked extra hours, and tomorrow we have to thank everybody who has helped us,” he added.

For three months, he and Pangilinan were survey laggards, fighting for the last two slots with the Marcos administration’s Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas senatorial candidates. But a surge of local government endorsements from Alyansa-allied officials likely boosted their campaigns, with the very last Pulse Asia survey placing him just at the cusp of the winning circle.

The survey, dated April 20-24, predicted it will be a close fight for the last two spots among several candidates, including Pangilinan. But the results were a complete upset for the Alyansa slate and a big boon for the Duterte-allied senatorial candidates led by Go.