Aquino harks back to the ‘pink wave,’ both as an assurance and a reminder to supporters of the magnitude of their campaign in 2022
MANILA, Philippines – Three years after skipping a Senate reelection try in the last poll to manage the “pink wave” of the Leni Robredo presidential bid, Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino on Monday, October 7, formalized his bid to return to the Senate in 2025.
Aquino, who was senator from 2013 to 2019, filed his certificate of candidacy (COC) as a senatorial bet of the Katipunan ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP) at the Manila Hotel. His bid for the Senate had earlier been endorsed by the Liberal Party (LP).
Before filing his COC, Aquino joined his family and his supporters at the San Agustin Church in Intramuros, Manila. Supporters wore pink — the color of Robredo’s 2022 presidential run which Aquino ran as campaign manager.
Aquino harked back to the pink wave, both as an assurance and a reminder to supporters of the magnitude of their past campaign.
“Hindi po tayo kaunti. Marami po ang mga nais tumakbo at nais maglingkod na buong-buo ang puso at pagkatao para sa taumbayan,” Aquino said when he addressed supporters at San Agustin Church on Monday.
“At baka nakakalimutan po natin ilang taon lang ang nakalipas napuno po natin ang kabuuuan ng Metro Manila, ng Cebu, ng Davao, ng Pampanga, ng Baguio. Lahat po napuno po natin ‘yan. Marami po tayo.”
(We are not just a handful. There are many who want to run, want to serve the people with their whole heart and soul. And lest we forget, that just a few years back, we were able to fill Metro Manila, Cebu, Davao, Pampanga, Baguio with supporters. We filled them all. We are many.)
He is only one of two LP-endorsed bets who will be running for a national post in 2025, the other being fellow former senator and 2022 vice-presidential bet Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, who will be running as an LP candidate.
The LP had also endorsed human rights lawyer Chel Diokno as a senatorial bet, but he will instead be seeking a House seat as the first nominee of the party-list group Akbayan.
As a member of the KNP, Aquino is part of a coalition which includes the LP, Akbayan, and the LP’s sectoral wing Mamamayang Liberal. They are all hoping to create a bigger space for the opposition under the Marcos administration.
Former senator and political detainee Leila de Lima, Mamamayang Liberal’s first nominee, also joined the Holy Mass before Aquino filed his COC.
Aquinos and the LP
Aquino last tried to return to the Senate in 2019, under the opposition Otso Diretso, during the Rodrigo Duterte administration. The coalition did horribly in the polls and got blanked. Aquino performed the best among the 8 opposition candidates with a 14th place finish.
Aquino is a member of a powerful political clan whose most prominent members include democracy icons, his uncle Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. and aunt Cory.
Bam was first elected senator in the 2013 elections under the “Team PNoy” coalition of his cousin, the late President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III. Prior to entering national politics as a senator, Aquino was a television host, entrepreneur, and chairperson of the National Youth Commission.
In 2016, despite being a political neophyte himself, Aquino was handpicked to be the campaign manager of a then relatively unknown Robredo, the LP’s pick to be vice president. She was thrust into the limelight after her husband, former Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, died in a plane crash in August 2012.
Aquino helped lead a campaign that saw Robredo rise from “1% [in the surveys] to vice president,” defeating Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son and namesake of the late dictator.
Aquino was again Robredo’s campaign manager in 2022. That race was not successful, however, with Marcos emerging as the first majority-elected Philippine president since his dictator-father was ousted. – Rappler.com
