Congressman Wilbert Lee backs out of 2025 senatorial race

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Representative Wilbert Lee, a survey laggard, cites the lack of machinery in his decision to drop his senatorial aspirations

MANILA, Philippines – Congressman Wilbert Lee, a top ad spender ahead of the campaign period, withdrew his candidacy from the 2025 senatorial elections on Monday, February 10.

“As I traveled around our country, I realized that the machinery we currently have is not enough to reach all of our fellow countrymen to introduce and inform them about the advocacies I am fighting for,” Lee said in Filipino, in a statement shared with the media.

“It became clear to me that more time is needed to strengthen the engagement with our fellow Filipinos and to ensure that the readiness and machinery for a successful campaign are sufficient,” Lee added.

Lee, who represents the party-list group AGRI, is a neophyte congressman who launched an aggressive early senatorial campaign a year before elections.

His campaign shelled out P13.2 million in outdoor media such as billboards from January to September 2024, according to a report by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism after crunching numbers from published rate cards.

He also spent at least P2.5 million to boost Facebook posts about him as of July 2024.

Despite his efforts, he constantly underperformed in pre-election surveys. In the latest Pulse Asia survey released on Monday, February 10, Lee would have placed anywhere from 31st to 63rd if elections were held during the January 18 to 25 survey period. He had an awareness rating of 25% with only 1% voting for him. 

A Pulse Asia survey in December showed only 21% of voters were aware of the congressman, and only 1.6% would cast a ballot for him. He was projected to place 26th to 44th in the senatorial race.

The Bicolano lawmaker is part of the House minority, and he represents a party-list group that backed former vice president Leni Robredo in the 2022 presidential race.

He became notable for grabbing the microphone from another congressman during the House budget deliberations for the Department of Health and Philippine Health Insurance Corporation in September.

Lee, at the time, had opposed the termination of debates on the appropriations request of the agency, since he had more questions regarding PhilHealth’s plan on reducing Filipinos’ expenses on medical services.

This resulted in the still-pending ethics complaint against him, filed by lawmakers who said they felt threatened by Lee’s actions. – Rappler.com