On verge of delisting, Akbayan rises to the top

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May 18, 2025 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Akbayan party-list faced delisting in 2022 after failing to secure enough votes for a House seat, only to be saved by the Supreme Court after it affirmed the cancellation of the An Waray party-list’s registration.

Three years later, Akbayan leapfrogged to the No. 1 spot, topping other party-lists polling well in pre-election surveys, including ACT-CIS and 4Ps.

Akbayan ranked No. 16 in the final Social Weather Stations poll this cycle, a significant improvement from the 33-34 level in December 2024, but that only guaranteed one seat in the 20th Congress.

Assured of being a representative is human rights lawyer Chel Diokno – the son of former senator Jose Diokno – who failed in his 2019 and 2022 Senate bids.

Diokno said Akbayan, which was formed in 1998, anchored its campaign on messaging discipline, as evidenced by the party-list’s viral tagline, “Pag mahal mo, Akbayan mo (If you love it, stand by it).”

“The tagline is very aligned with our track record at Akbayan,” Diokno told The STAR’s online show “Truth on the Line.”

“We have long embraced the Filipino people by legislating bills that promote justice and are humane,” the lawyer stressed.

Diokno was named the first nominee of the party-list to bolster the group’s popularity among the youth, who mostly voted for him in his two Senate bids. Rep. Perci Cendaña slid in as the second nominee, while indigenous advocate Dadah Kiram Ismula became the third nominee.

“We became more active on social media. Our communications team had a fusion of different social media platforms. I also had a lot of engagements with the youth,” the lawyer said.

The tweaked strategy paid off. Akbayan garnered 2,779,621 votes, based on Comelec’s official results. Diokno, Cendaña and Ismula will become representatives in the 20th Congress.

As the youth propelled Akbayan into Congress, Diokno vows to push for more educational reforms: increasing the educational budget and bolstering educational infrastructure.

“We can increase the budget for education to what the United Nations has recommended – six percent of the gross domestic product,” the incoming representative said.

“We also have a shortage of classrooms. We have to make sure that the infrastructure is there to accommodate the other youth, who hopefully can get back to school,” he added.

Diokno’s first move, however, touches on perilous terrain: the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte. He, alongside incoming representative Leila de Lima, has accepted Speaker Martin Romualdez’s invitation to serve as prosecutor for Duterte’s Senate trial, which will commence in June. Their roles come as two originally assigned House prosecutors lost their respective races.
Diokno is no stranger to this quasi-judicial and quasi-political process: he was a private prosecutor during former president Joseph Estrada’s trial in late 2000 and early 2001.

Cendaña endorsed the first impeachment complaint against Duterte, containing 24 charges, filed in December by civil society groups.

“Our main goal in joining is to exact accountability and ferret out the truth,” Diokno said.

The incoming House prosecutor believes there is a strong basis to convict the Vice President, which would need the support of no less than 16 senators.
Diokno believes that running for the party-list race instead of gunning for a Senate seat for the third time was worth it.

“It’s an incredible opportunity. There’s a different experience when you serve as a legislator in both houses. You’ll have a lot of contributions in lawmaking,” he said.