Makabayan bloc down to two seats in House

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Makabayan bloc down to two seats in House

CARRYING THE FIGHT. Kabataan and ACT Teachers get one seat each in the incoming 20th Congress.

Photos from Kabataan and ACT Teachers

The 2025 election results mark yet another setback for the Makabayan bloc as it faces continued harassment and persecution

MANILA, Philippines – The progressive Makabayan bloc is down to two seats from three in the House of Representatives after only two party-list groups won in the 2025 elections.

ACT Teachers and Kabataan were included in the 52 party-list groups proclaimed by the Commission on Elections on Monday, May 19. They each get one seat in the incoming 20th Congress.

ACT Teachers will be represented by returning legislator Antonio Tinio, while lawyer Renee Co will be the Kabataan representative.

The other groups that ran in the 2025 elections under the Makabayan bloc — Bayan Muna and Gabriela Women’s Party — failed to get a seat.

The Comelec announced on Monday that 54 party-list groups won in the 2025 race but it suspended the proclamation of Duterte Youth and BH Bagong Henerasyon over pending cases.

ACT Teachers ranked 35th with 353,631 votes, while Kabataan received 312,344 votes for a 41st spot finish. Gabriela Women’s Party ranked 55th.

A party-list group must secure at least 2% of the total votes to be guaranteed a seat in Congress. The Comelec, however, may allocate seats to groups that fall below this threshold, in order to fill the 20% quota of party-list representation in the House.

Kabataan, in a statement on May 14, said that its victory shows that the Filipino youth want an alternative kind of politics.

“Tinatanaw namin ang patuloy nating pagtutulungan sa iba’t ibang paraan para ikeri ang kinabukasan na deserve nating kabataan (We look forward to continuing our collaboration in various ways to carry the future that we, the youth, truly deserve),” it said.

ACT Teachers, meanwhile, highlighted in a statement on May 15 that its duty doesn’t end with the election and that it looks forward to working together to uphold the rights and welfare of teachers, among others, inside and outside of Congress.

“Magbabalik ang ACT Teachers Partylist sa Kongreso na bitbit ang lahat ng ating panawagan at patuloy sana nating masandigan ang isa’t isa laban sa walang-habas na red-tagging, harassment at panunupil (ACT Teachers will return to Congress carrying all our demands and may we continue to rely on one another in the face of relentless red-tagging, harassment, and repression),” it said in Filipino.

The result marks yet another setback for the Makabayan bloc which has seen a steady decline in its electoral strength in recent years. The bloc secured seven seats in 2016 — two each for ACT Teachers and Gabriela, and one each for Anakpawis, Bayan Muna, and Kabataan. This number dropped to six in 2019, with Anakpawis losing its seat in the House.

The Makabayan bloc’s representation dwindled further to just three seats by the 2022 elections. Only Kabataan, ACT Teachers, and Gabriela retained one seat each in the 19th Congress. Bayan Muna was dealt its biggest loss in its two-decade history of participating in the party-list elections after consistently winning since 2001.

Bayan Muna, previously a top-performing group, now faces delisting, following the 2025 elections since the Party-List System Act states that the Comelec can “remove or cancel” a group’s registration if it “fails to obtain at least 2% of the votes cast under the party-list system in the two (2) preceding elections for the constituency in which it has registered. “

While the bloc enjoys a solid support base among progressive groups, it still suffered from the attacks perpetrated mainly during the six-year administration of Rodrigo Duterte. The then-president himself took part in these attacks in the guise of addressing the communist insurgency.

Leaders from this block have also been targets of massive disinformation fueled by state-backed propaganda machines online, as well as alleged trumped-up charges and on-ground harassment against community organizers.

Bayan Muna blamed state bodies, including the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, for the vilification and disinformation campaigns against them, saying that these actions only revealed the desperation of those in power to silence voices of dissent.

“Sa kabila ng mga pagsubok na ito, hindi kami magpapapigil [at] hindi kailanman matatahimik ang Bayan Muna,” the group said in a statement on May 14. “Ang aming paninindigan na maglingkod sa sambayanang Pilipino ay magpapatuloy sa loob man o labas ng Kongreso.“

(Despite these challenges, we will not back down, and Bayan Muna will never be silenced. Our commitment to serve the Filipino people will continue, whether inside or outside of Congress.)

Read Rappler’s in-depth series on the Makabayan bloc under Duterte:

In a statement on May 17, the Makabayan coalition thanked its supporters for standing with them in the face of sustained and coordinated attacks, adding that “the regime sought to wipe out Makabayan in the electoral arena but it failed.”

The coalition said that it will remain steadfast in the fight especially amid the “intensifying political crisis” in the Philippines.

“Time and again we have maintained that real change must go beyond the elite-dominated electoral exercise,” the Makabayan coalition said. “We trust in the people as they continue to seek fundamental change that goes beyond the regular changing of the ruling classes who wield power.”