A bittersweet end to Makabayan’s ‘real opposition’ campaign

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The outcome of the 2025 elections has been bittersweet for voters who were in search of an alternative to Marcos-Duterte politics. This is especially so for the Makabayan coalition that stood on a “genuine opposition” platform amplified by its party-list groups and a near-complete Senate slate.

A stunning turn of events saw former senators Bam Aquino and Kiko Pangilinan in the Magic 12. Social democratic political party Akbayan, with human rights lawyer Chel Diokno as its first nominee, is leading the party-list race.

The Makabayan bloc is expected to maintain its presence in the House of Representatives in the next Congress, though with fewer representation. ACT Teachers and Kabataan are both anticipated to get one seat each, but Bayan Muna are Gabriela Women’s Partylist are not.

Based on partial, unofficial results from the Comelec Media Server as of 2:41 pm, Thursday, May 15, with 99.12% precincts reporting, ACT Teachers is at 34th place with 0.85% of votes, while Kabataan is at 41st place with 0.75% of votes. Gabriela is at 55th place with 0.62% of votes, while Bayan Muna is at 76th place with 0.39% of votes

This will be Bayan Muna’s second consecutive failed election bid which will result in its getting delisted. It will be Gabriela’s first loss in the party-list race since 2004. These are huge blows to the already limited political power that progressive groups wield in Congress.

“Despite a hard-fought campaign grounded in grassroots organizing and people’s issues, Gabriela Women’s Party now trails by a mere few thousand votes from the last winning party-list — a margin so thin it lays bare the devastating impact of the widespread irregularities that have plagued these elections,” Gabriela said in a statement on Friday, May 16.

Among Makabayan’s Senate bets, former Bayan Muna congressman Teddy Casiño is ranked the highest at 32nd place out of 66 candidates, followed by Gabriela Representative Arlene Brosas at 33rd place.

ACT Teachers Representative France Castro, who had ranked highest among Makabayan bets in pre-election surveys, is at 40th place. The others’ rankings are as follows: Danilo Ramos, 35th place; Liza Maza, 37th place; Ronnel Arambulo, 39th place; Jocelyn Andamo, 46th place; Jerome Adonis, 49th place; Mimi Doringo, 50th place; and Mody Floranda, 59th place.

Red-tagged and discredited

Renato Reyes, Makabayan’s campaign manager, said their campaign was affected by relentless red-tagging and a vilification drive.

“Inaaraw-araw tayo ng red-tagging, ginagawan tayo ng kung anu-anong poster, ginagawan ng kung anu-anong paninira,” he said during the miting de avance on May 9. (They red-tagged us every day, they made posters, all kinds of defamation.)

Posters red-tagging the Makabayan Coalition party-list groups and Senate bets had been reported all over the country. The persistent false claim that the Makabayan bloc is a Communist Party of the Philippines front has been repeatedly debunked over the years.

Gabriela 4th nominee Jacq Ruiz recalled that while campaigning in Caloocan, they were distributing Gabriela flyers when they encountered a group of men who said, “Naku, NPA ‘yan (Oh no, that’s the New People’s Army).”

Ruiz told Rappler she explained to them that such was not the case. She believed that they understood eventually that they were not the kind of people that false social media posts have made them out to be.

Bayan Muna second nominee Karlos Zarate said red-tagging is nothing new. They have been bearing the brunt of smear campaigns since Bayan Muna won three seats in 2001.

But they survived, Zarate said, under the administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo whose counterinsurgency program resulted in killings and disappearances of activists and members of legal organizations.

And they continued to do so even under Rodrigo Duterte, when the peace talks fell apart and the government formed the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.

“Ang target nila hindi lang naman ‘yung mga armed, pati kaming hindi mga armado na nakikilahok sa parliamentary struggle,” said Zarate. “Walang puknat talaga na ni-li-link sa underground movement despite the lack of evidence.”

(Their target is not only those who are armed, but even us who are not armed and are engaged in parliamentary struggle. They have been ceaselessly linking us to the underground movement despite the lack of evidence.)

In 2024, the Supreme Court defined red-tagging as an act that threatens a person’s constitutional right to life, liberty, and security.

When she was talking to the men in Caloocan, Ruiz said she cited this definition from the Supreme Court, apparently to make them understand what they were doing, aided by the highest legal body in the land.

A question of legitimacy

Bayan Muna and Gabriela Women’s Party have been participating in the party-list system for over two decades.

Gabriela championed laws on expanding maternity leave and support for solo parents, protecting women and children against violence. Bayan Muna lobbied for sectors including minimum wage earners, students, and senior citizens.

The parties made Left stalwarts Satur Ocampo, Neri Colmenares, Teddy Casiño, and Liza Maza household names.

The party-list electoral system, designed to elect representatives of marginalized sectors to Congress, was a parliamentary space befitting Makabayan, whose leaders and members move in underrepresented communities championing people’s causes.

In the 2025 polls, all four party-list groups from the Makabayan coalition fielded first nominees who previously held House seats, with the exception of Kabataan first nominee Renee Co.

Ruiz said the current party-list system is not benefitting marginalized sectors.

“Ang mga pary-list ngayon ay sinet up na rin para sa kapakanan ng mga political dynasties, ng mga traditional politicians,” Ruiz said. (The party-list groups now had also been set up for the sake of political dynasties, of traditional politicians.)

“Ibang-iba na ang itsura niya,” she added. (It looks very different now.)

Gabriela has 256,522 votes according to the latest partial, unofficial results based on data sourced from the Comelec Media Server. It has a 0.62% share of the total votes. A party has to get at least 2% of the total votes to secure one seat.

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Bayan Muna has garnered 162,658 votes and currently ranks 76th. This is significantly lower than the 215,981 votes it garnered in 2022. ACT Teachers is at the 34th spot with 0.85% of the votes while Kabataan ranks 41st with 0.75% of the votes.

Former ACT Teachers representative Antonio Tinio said they view the 3.5 million to 4.5 million votes that six of their Senate bets garnered in a positive light, considering that they don’t have the resources for television ads or vote-buying.

Tinio said this implies an electoral base where their message resonates.

“Mayroong millions of people na tumatanggap o bukas tumanggap, to the extent na binoto ang aming mga kandidato,” Tinio said. (There are millions of people who accepted, or are open to accept us, to the extent that they voted for our candidates.)

Hope springs eternal

The administration’s Senate slate lost victories that surveys otherwise foretold, giving way to candidates who were neither from the Marcos nor Duterte camps. Despite the loss of the whole Makabayan Senate slate, along with Bayan Muna and Gabriela, Casiño and Zarate see the silver lining in the outcome of the Senate and party-list races.

“Truly happy that Bam, Kiko, Akbayan, ML, ACT Teachers, and Kabataan won. Sana makahabol din ang Gabriela. (We hope Gabriela catches up.) They, together with incumbent Sen. Risa [Hontiveros], will take the cudgels for the progressive and democratic forces in the next Congress,” Casiño said in a post on X two days after election day.

“Actually they not only won,” Casiño added. “They won emphatically despite all the odds against them.”

Akbayan’s Diokno and Mamamayang Liberal’s Leila de Lima have already agreed to be part of the prosecution team for the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.

Zarate said he “very much welcomes” Akbayan and ML’s victories, as these would push the impeachment forward.

As for Makabayan, it’s time to regroup.

“Of course, we will reassess our positions. Magpapalakas, maghahanda, especially for 2028,” said Zarate. (We will fortify our ranks and prepare, especially for 2028.)

The former Bayan Muna congressman remains optimistic. After all, he said, the conditions that gave birth to the party have not changed. – Rappler.com

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