May 16, 2025 – The election count isn't over, but the shape of it is already clear enough to make you wince. And breathe.
The familiar names dominate the Senate: Bong Go, Bato Dela Rosa, Imee Marcos, Camille Villar, Tito Sotto, Pia Cayetano. A lineup that feels like a rerun. The old guard, kept alive by legacy machines, billion-peso campaigns, and recycled myths.
But Bam Aquino is second. Kiko Pangilinan is back. Both are on track to join Risa Hontiveros. That means three senators with a track record of backing farmers, teachers, students, and women. They’ve fought uphill battles on food security, mental health, education, and human rights. Often in the minority, yet consistently firm in principle.
This won’t overturn the Senate overnight. But it gives us ground to stand on. It opens space to speak, to resist, to propose.
In the House, there are more bright spots. Akbayan leads the partylist race and is securing three seats: Atty. Chel Diokno, Perci Vilar Cendana, and Dadah Kiram Ismula. All three bring years of legal, legislative, and ground experience. These aren’t placeholders. These are movement people stepping into institutional trenches.
ML Partylist is pushing through as well. Atty. Leila de Lima is poised to return to Congress after surviving years of political detention. Her presence is more than symbolic. It’s proof that political repression can delay justice, but it can’t erase it.
And the Makabayan bloc — ACT Teachers, Kabataan, Gabriela — are still fighting. It’s still unclear how many will make it, but the numbers tell a story. More than three million voted for Makabayan senatorial candidates. These are votes cast in the middle of coordinated red-tagging, black propaganda, and intimidation. And still, millions showed up for them.
No billion-peso ads. No national machinery. Just sheer principle, grassroots trust, and shared struggle.
This is not just symbolic. It’s strategic.
Three million people said yes to people’s politics without having to be bribed, deceived, or dazzled. That’s a base. That’s a movement. And it’s growing.
Let’s be honest. This election still favored the dynasties. The oligarchs. The mythmakers. The machinery still works. Disinformation still runs deep. And most institutions remain shaped by the old rules of power.
But we do ourselves a disservice if we walk away with only grief.
Because this year, something moved. The margins thickened. The so-called "unelectable" candidates reached millions. The previously invisible became audible. The machine may still dominate, but we have more people on our side, challenging it.
So, what now?
We organize beyond the ballot. We channel the campaign energy into mutual aid, labor organizing, student councils, and legal advocacy. We make sure Bam, Kiko, and Risa hear us — and are held accountable to our collective hopes. We strengthen the bonds between parties and movements, between urban and rural struggles, between online noise and offline organizing.
We build real machinery. From the ground up. Volunteer-driven, community-rooted, tech-savvy, and politically disciplined. The votes we gathered this year weren’t just numbers. They were names. They were conversations. They were trust earned in the middle of a storm.
And yes, we prepare again. Because if we got this far without full machinery, imagine what we could build in three more years, or six.
Progressives didn’t just run. They were heard. Chosen. Believed in.
The vote is not the end. It’s a reading of the field. And this field tells us one thing loud and clear: We are no longer alone in our political imagination.
Taumbayan, panalo tayo. Not just at the poll but in conviction. In possibility. ***
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