Aquino owes Kiko-Bam tandem victory to young voters

Former Senator Bam Aquino is still on cloud nine as he and ally Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan are garnering votes for their Senate comeback.

Aquino said their tandem’s victory was due to the overwhelming support from young voters.

“Very unexpected po ito. This morning napakiramdaman po namin makakapasok kami, pero siyempre hindi ganito kataas,” he told GMA Integrated News.

(This is unexpected. We actually got a hunch this morning that we could make it but we did not expect to rank this high.)

“Kaya nagpapasalamat kami sa lahat ng mga tumulong, lahat ng mga volunteers, especially yung mga kabataan. Tingin ho namin yung mga kabataan talaga yung nagdala sa amin ni Sen. Kiko sa winning circle,” Aquino added.

(We are so thankful to everyone who helped, to all the volunteers, especially the youth. We think that it was the youth who helped us Senator Kiko to make it in the winning circle.)

Based on COMELEC’s partial and unofficial count as of 11:44 p.m., Aquino ranked second with 20,269,423 votes while Pangilinan is at fifth place with 14,811,804 votes.

Aquino said that Pangilinan was the first person he called when the initial results were released.

“Siya po yung una kong tinawagan. Ang sabi ko, ‘Boss, we made it,’” he said.

(He was the first one I called. I told him, ‘Boss, we made it.’)

This was a different story for both Aquino and Pangilian who experienced heartbreaks in the last two elections. Aquino missed the Top 12 in the 2019 senatorial race after ranking 14th, while Pangilinan trailed behind Sara Duterte in the vice presidential race in 2022.

Aquino said his campaign this time is much better than six years ago.

“Talagang every election cycle, you have to present yourself again [...] Mas magaan ngayon. Hindi ako yung pinaka na-troll. In 2019, I think ako yung pinaka nato-troll nung panahon na ‘yun. Ngayon iba yung nangyayari sa national politics,” he said.

(In every election cycle, you have to present yourself again [...] Things felt lighter this time because I’m not the one being targeted by trolls anymore. In 2019, I was a victim of trolls. Things have changed now in national politics.)

Aquino’s re-election bid banked on improving the free college education law and vowing to help students get employed easily.

“We are very ready to work already. We can’t wait till we get back in July para simulan ang mga reporma na ito,” he said.

(We are very ready to work already. We can’t wait till we get back in July to start working on these reforms.) — Vince Angelo Ferreras/BAP, GMA Integrated News

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