Kiko Pangilinan, Bam Aquino, Chel Diokno among opposition Senate bets in 2025 elections, Leni Robredo still being convinced—De Lima
Liberal Party spokesperson Atty. Leila de Lima has revealed the opposition slate for the 2025 midterm election so far.
On Feb. 22, the former senator confirmed that Kiko Pangilinan, Bam Aquino, and Chel Diokno are seeking senatorial seats in the coming poll. De Lima first bared the slate in a text message to Rappler.
"The ones who are sure to run in the opposition are [former] senator Kiko Pangilinan, [former] senator Bam Aquino, and Dean Chel Diokno and maybe there are still others," she said according to a Philippine STAR report.
Additionally, de Lima shared that they are convincing former Vice President Leni Robredo, who ran for president in the 2022 poll, to join the lineup.
"We are still convincing [former] VP Leni to also run under the same slate and maybe there's a higher or greater chance at success with the VP Leni leading the pack."
According to the former senator, Pangilinan is "surely" a Liberal Party candidate while Aquino and Diokno are not officially members of the party.
Pangilinan ran alongside Robredo for the VP post 2022, placing second behind current VP Sara Duterte. He served as a senator from 2001 to 2013 and 2016 to 2022.
Meanwhile, Aquino was also a senator from 2013 to 2016 and attempted for re-election alongside Diokno in the opposition slate Otso Diretso in 2019. He failed to earn a spot, placing 14th overall. Despite planning to run for senator in 2022, Aquino instead became Robredo's campaign manager in her bid for the presidency.
Diokno, on the other hand, made a bid for senator in 2019 and 2022 but fell short in both elections.
In a survey released in January, OCTA Research revealed that the top preferred candidates for senator were Deputy Majority Leader Erwin Tulfo, incumbent senator Bong Go, and former Manila mayor Isko Moreno.
