Bam overwhelmed with 2nd place in early count, Kiko thought 5th spot was 'fake news'

Former senators Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV and Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan said they were both surprised and elated with being in second and fifth place, respectively, bucking pre- election surveys that placed them both outside the top 12.

"Our team has a Telegram thread, doon ko nakita na nasa Top 5 na nga. Akala ko fake news. Sa dinami dami na fake news na natatangap ko araw-araw sa kampanya, ang sabi ko, 'Totoo ba ito? Baka disinformation ito,' totoo pala," Pangilinan said in an interview Monday night.

"Ako yata ang summa cum laude ng disinformation ng kampanyang ito kaya nakita natin apektado tayo sa mga surveys kaya ng lumabas I initially thought, well I couldn't believe it. Hindi ako makapaniwala," he admitted.

The former senator said they double checked and triple checked the information to determine if the social media card showing he was fifth place was indeed legitimate.

Aquino is ranking second with 20 million votes while Pangilinan is in fifth place with 14.8 million votes in the early count based on election returns off Comelec media transparency server.

“This is really an unprecedented result. At yan po ay, gaya nang nasabi ko, hindi lang iyan dahil sa akin. Dahil ‘yan sa ating lahat,” Aquino said.

“We worked extra hours, more than 90 days. We’ve done it [all],” Aquino added.

Pangilinan said that their miracle run also took a village to accomplish: endorsements, volunteers, and relentless reaching out to voters.

“We didn't expect yung ganitong klaseng paglabas ng resulta dahil nga base sa lahat ng mga surveys, wala tayo lagi sa top 12. And therefore, nasurpresa rin tayo. But at the back of our minds, sabi ko there is one path to victory. And it all depended on the last big push,” Pangilinan said.

“Sabi ko nga, kailangan namin ng milagro para manalo at mukhang ‘yun ang nangyari. In the last minute, people, maraming undecided who said, sige, bigyan natin ng chance,” said Pangilinan, who is set to equate his best Senate race finish in 2007 at fifth place. —RF, GMA Integrated News