Senatorial elections' race for No. 12 usually tight

Filipinos await the winner of the 12th spot in the senatorial race, which has been historically tight.

As of 5:21 p.m. Wednesday, re-electionist Senator Imee Marcos held on to the 12th spot with 13,038,627 votes.  She has an advantage of more than a million votes against the 13th placer Ben Tulfo, who garnered 11,886,979 votes.

Meanwhile, Senator Bong Revilla already conceded after ranking 14th in the senatorial race. 

A report on "24 Oras" by JP Soriano took a look back at how crucial the last spot was in the past elections. 

In 2007, Juan Miguel Zubiri was already proclaimed the 12th senatorial race winner with a vote margin of more than 19,000 against Koko Pimentel. 

But Pimentel filed an electoral protest over alleged fraud and requested a recount. 

The protest lasted four years until Zubiri resigned in 2022, but he denied that he was involved in the alleged electoral fraud.

“After the statements nga ni Mr. Bedol and Mr. Ampatuan, kasi sila po ay mga key personalities dito sa ARMM, lalo na sa Maguindanao. So paglabas po ng kanilang paratang, kumuha pa sila sa ibang senador para ilagay sa akin. Nakakahiya na itong tatlong senador pa ay kasama ko pa dito sa Senado, kailangan po magpakita tayo ng delicadeza,” Zubiri said in an interview. 

(After the statements made by Mr. Bedol and Mr. Ampatuan, who are key personalities in ARMM, especially in Maguindanao, I couldn’t believe that they got [votes] from other senators to pad mine. It’s so embarrassing because three of them are my colleagues here in the Senate. So I’m doing this out of courtesy.) 

The electoral tribunal eventually declared Pimentel the duly elected senator in the 2007 polls. 

“Matagal naman akong kumbinsido na sa fraud. It took him long to be convinced pero at least dumating tayo sa punto na na-convince din siya na may fraud,” said Pimentel in an interview. 

(I’ve always been convinced that there was a fraud. It took him long to be convinced but at least he finally realized that there was really a fraud.) 

Pimentel was proclaimed and finished the remaining period of Zubiri’s term. 

In 2007, 13 slots were up for grabs in the senatorial elections. The 13th senator will only serve for three years to continue the remaining term of then Senator Teofisto Guingona who assumed vice presidency. 

Gringo Honasan got the 13th spot but he argued that he should have gotten the 12th place instead, which was secured by Ralph Recto then. 

Honasan filed a petition before the Supreme Court, but it was junked later on. 

Juan Ponce Enrile, who was in 14th place at that time, also filed an election protest but he eventually withdrew it. 

In 2004, Rodolfo Biazon got the 12th slot in the Senate. But this was contested by 13th placer Robert Barbers and 15th placer John Osmena in separate petitions. 

Biazon and Barbers had a tight battle in the last Senate seat with the former having an edge of only 6,212 votes against the latter. 

The Supreme Court dismissed Barbers’ petition, while Osmena withdrew the petition he filed before the Senate Electoral Tribunal. 

A decade later, Francis Tolentino also protested against Leila De Lima (14,144,070) for securing the 12th spot after garnering over a million more votes than him (12,811,098) in the 2016 elections. 

Tolentino asked the Supreme Court to cancel the proclamation of other winning candidates in the senatorial race. 

His lawyer argued that the 10th to 12th placers should not be considered winners due to alleged data manipulation. 

De Lima’s camp responded and said that Tolentino should accept his defeat. 

In 2019, Tolentino withdrew his protest in preparation for the next elections. —Vince Angelo Ferreras/LDF, GMA Integrated News

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