The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will proclaim the 12 winning senators today after completing the canvassing of all 175 certificates of canvass across the country following the 2025 national and local elections.
In a press conference, poll body chairman George Garcia said the proclamation would begin at 3 p.m. at the Manila Hotel’s Tent City.
“We are just waiting for the formal recommendation of the supervisory committee. We were informed they will recommend the proclamation of 12 winning senatorial candidates based on yesterday’s (Thursday) ranking,” he told reporters yesterday.
Garcia said the Comelec completed the official counting of the certificate of canvass (COC) for the midterm elections on Thursday evening.
The COC serves to identify the official winners.
He disclosed that each member of the Commission en banc will be given the chance to proclaim the winning senators starting from 12th place down to the one who got the highest votes.
“Each commissioner will be reading the certificate of proclamation of each and every candidate,” he explained.
Each senator-elect is allowed to bring along 10 to 15 guests and is given five minutes each to deliver their speeches, Garcia added.
The 12 senatorial candidates who gained the most votes among the 66 candidates are the following:
1. Senator Christopher “Bong” Go- 27,121,073 votes
2. Bam Aquino- 20,971,899 votes
3. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa- 20,773,946 votes
4. Erwin Tulfo- 17,118,881 votes
5. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan- 15,343,229 votes
6. Rodante Marcoleta- 15,250,723 votes
7. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson- 15,106,111 votes
8. Vicente “Tito” Sotto III- 14,832,996 votes
9. Senator Pia Cayetano- 14,573,430 votes
10. Camille Villar- 13,651,274 votes
11. Lito Lapid- 13,394,102 votes
12. Senator Imee Marcos- 13,339,227 votes
In the party-list race, Akbayan received the most votes with 2,779,621, followed by Duterte Youth with 2,338,564, and Tingog Party-list with 1,822,708 votes.
Ranking fourth is the 4Ps Party-list with 1,469,571 votes, followed by ACT-CIS in fifth place with 1,239,930 votes.
Ako Bicol Party-list received 1,073,119 votes; Uswag Ilonggo, 777,754; Solid North Party-list, 765,322; and Trabaho, 709,283.
Cibac with 593,911; Malasakit @ Bayanihan with 580,100; Senior Citizens with 577,753; PPP with 575,762; ML with 547,949; and FPJ Panday Bayanihan with 538,003 votes were also included in the top 15 in the partylist race.
Out of the 69,673,653 registered voters, 57,350,968 participated in the recently held 2025 National and Local Elections (NLE), marking the highest voter turnout recorded in the history of Philippine midterm elections, which includes local absentee and online overseas voting.
However, the proclamation of party-list winners was moved to Monday after the poll body asked party-list organizations to submit formal position papers due to a dispute over whether there are 63 or 64 party-list seats, before they finalize the allocations and declare the winners.
According to Garcia, partylist officials hold varying views on the calculation of allocations, as some groups contend that the total number of seats should be 64 instead of 63.
The Comelec earlier said that 63 seats are designated for party-list representatives, which represent 20 percent of the House of Representatives’ total membership.
“Parties that secure a minimum of 2 percent of the total votes in the party-list election will be granted one seat each,” Garcia explained.
Garcia said that oral arguments will not be needed after position papers are submitted.
“The issue of how many seats, whether 63 or 64, the entitlement to two or three seats, or none at all, must all be addressed comprehensively,” he noted.
“There are even cases of party-lists whose accreditations were cancelled. All of this must be factored into the resolution,” he added.
