Part 2: The decisions, actions that powered Akbayan’s return to power

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Second of 2 parts
READ: Part 1 | The campaign that brought Akbayan to record-breaking victory

Many rejoiced when human rights lawyer Chel Diokno announced that he was running as the first nominee of Akbayan Citizens’ Action Party in the 2025 national elections.

His decision to represent Akbayan was hardly surprising. Their shared values, political ideals, and vision for the country make for a natural partnership, after all. But while joining the party-list group was a significant step, the greater challenge lay in making Filipino voters, particularly those beyond Akbayan’s traditional base, recognize that Diokno is now running under its banner.

“It’s one of the early communication issues we faced because a lot of people thought that time he was still running for a Senate seat,” Akbayan vice president Emman Hizon told Rappler.

“We really had to hammer on the message that Akbayan Party is the party-list group of [Diokno], to connect Akbayan and Diokno to each other,” he added.

Diokno had cultivated a loyal base despite losing two consecutive Senate races, especially among the youth, who affectionately call themselves “CHELdren.” He garnered nearly 10 million votes in the 2022 elections, placing 19th, which is a notable jump from his 2019 performance which placed him at 21st with 6.3 million votes.

Akbayan still refused to be complacent or rely solely on Diokno’s “CHELdren” to mobilize on their own. Party chairman emeritus and political analyst Ronald Llamas pointed out that in 2022, Akbayan’s votes were only a fraction of what then-reelectionist senator Risa Hontiveros received despite her status as the party’s most visible leader.

“Ibig sabihin, merong disconnect between Risa as a senator and Akbayan as a party-list group,” he said. “Hindi naman automatic na nakakuha ka ng ganitong boto ay makukuha mo iyan sa party-list.”

(That means there’s a disconnect between Risa as a senator and Akbayan as a party-list group. Just because you got this kind of vote doesn’t automatically mean you’ll get the same in the party-list.)

This concern was validated during a focus group discussion in December 2024, months after Diokno officially launched his bid as Akbayan’s party-list nominee. Edz Ayson, a longtime member of Senator Risa Hontiveros’ team since 2004, shared that in key provinces in Luzon — Batangas, Laguna, and Quezon — at least 60% of participants still believed Diokno was running for a Senate seat.

This misunderstanding posed a significant challenge for Akbayan, one of 155 party-list groups vying for House seats in the 2025 elections. On the ballot, only party-list names appear and not their nominees. So if voters support Diokno but are unaware that he’s running under Akbayan, those votes are effectively lost.

“We had to address that by creating a brand na nakadikit kay [Diokno] at saka kay [Hontiveros] na hindi hiwalay dahil nga natuto kami doon sa dissonance o dysfunction noong nakaraang kampanya,” Llamas said.

(We had to address that by creating a brand that is connected to [Diokno] and [Hontiveros], not separate, because we learned from the dissonance or dysfunction of the previous campaign.)

Creating the Risa-Chel-Akbayan brand

Hontiveros’ journey from Akbayan representative to two-term senator is a remarkable achievement in itself. She has carved for herself a distinct political brand as she stood firm as one of the few consistent opposition voices in the Senate, particularly during the harsh Duterte administration.

Her influence was further solidified when she became the de facto campaign leader of candidates outside the warring Duterte and Marcos factions, including former senators Bam Aquino and Francis Pangilinan.

According to Hizon, this was the first time the senator “really went out for Akbayan” during a campaign season. In previous elections, Hontiveros had to focus on steering her own candidacy to balance the demands of campaigning, building alliances, and appealing to a broad base of voters and political actors.

“2025 was different because she’s not running for reelection so she can really put her weight in her political party,” he said. “She really used her political goodwill to endorse Akbayan.”

But Hontiveros’ personal brand over the years has evolved separately from that of her party. This wasn’t driven by ill intent but rather by the realities of political survival, especially amid a hostile landscape for opposition figures.

“It’s only natural that [Hontiveros] has her own communication team to manage her brand and her narrative [and it’s] the same thing with [Akbayan],” Hizon said. “[But] those two teams work hand-in-hand and our respective communication frameworks and objectives were clear.”

Hontiveros’ team, distinct from Akbayan’s organizational core, took on the challenge of shaping a campaign segment that would tightly associate both Senator Hontiveros and Diokno with Akbayan, and vice versa, for the 2025 elections. It wasn’t a matter of complex strategy, drastic pivots, or endless deliberations. The key was embracing the simple truth that less is more.

Monica Magpantay, Hontiveros’ communications director, recalled that they deliberately stripped down their campaign materials, to avoid visual clutter and excessive messaging. While other party-list groups filled their posters with promises and detailed goals, their team focused on a sharper message: Akbayan is 51 on the ballot, Diokno is the party’s top nominee, and Hontiveros is its incumbent senator.

“We are very narrow-minded in the goal of pushing the 51 Akbayan message,” she told Rappler. “We didn’t put anything in the materials because at that point, we were already putting on horseblinders to get that goal.”

The team also produced videos featuring Hontiveros and Diokno that went beyond highlighting their platforms. The focus instead was on addressing a recurring issue in Philippine elections that many Filipinos are unsure about how to vote for a party-list group. Past polls have consistently shown a low fill-up rate in this section of the ballot, often due to voters’ limited awareness of the process and the candidates involved.

These campaign decisions stemmed from the realization that overwhelming voters with too much information is ineffective. You simply need to tell them clearly and directly what they need to know. According to Magpantay, this approach is a way of respecting their time.

“Because I noticed that the opposition always wants to explain and is eager to debate,” she said. “But people, when they see posters, they only look for about five seconds and won’t read everything so you just have to tell them right away what they need to do, that was my strategy.”

Targeting the youth

Ayson, a member of Hontiveros’ team specializing in data analysis, said their focus group discussions revealed three key findings: majority of party-list voters reside in urban areas, a significant portion of the voting population are males aged 45 and above, and many of Akbayan’s “hardcore” supporters are aging.

“So diyan kami talaga nagsimula,” he said. “Importate rin talaga iyong pag-touch base kasi may mga tao na kailangan na iyong old-style na kampanya na hahawakan mo ang kamay, magpapa-picture, so pinuntahan talaga namin.”

(So that’s really where we started. It’s also important to touch base because there are people who still need the old-style campaign where you hold their hand and take pictures. So that’s exactly what we focused on.)

The reality that Akbayan’s voter base is leaning older created the perfect opportunity for Diokno’s younger supporters to step in. On social media, it’s clear that many of Diokno’s “CHELdren” are younger, mostly millennials and Gen Z. The team then focused on finding and engaging with this demographic.

“Nasaan na ba ang mga CHELdren and how do we make sure that they show up again for [Diokno] this time around and that they convert their votes to Akbayan?” Party president Rafaela David said in an episode of In the Public Square with Rappler columnist John Nery.

“Hinanap namin talaga sila hanggang munisipyo, even until barangay-level, para makita kung nasaan sila at saan may opportunity ang Akbayan to expand its market,” she added.

(Where are the CHELdren now, and how do we make sure they show up again for [Diokno] this time and convert their votes to Akbayan? We really searched for them all the way down to the municipalities, even to the barangay level, to see where they are and where Akbayan has opportunities to expand its support base.)

Akbayan Chel Diokno joins wage hilke protest

Akbayan also invested in going around universities and campuses, which is a strategy that hadn’t been prioritized in previous campaigns. They made a deliberate effort to engage directly with the youth electorate — holding forums, open dialogues, and discussions that gave students the space to talk about the issues that mattered to them.

This campus-focused strategy may partly explain why Akbayan’s performance in pre-election surveys lagged behind other party-list groups. Traditional polling methods, after all, often rely on household surveys or phone interviews which may underrepresent student populations, especially those who live in dormitories, temporary residences, or are not listed as heads of households.

As a result, the voices of young voters actively engaged in university discussions and events could have been overlooked which created a gap between Akbayan’s actual reach and its perceived support in the data.

“Sa karamihan ng nakita namin ng mga mock election sa schools at universities, number one or number two ang Akbayan pero hindi siya lumalabas sa survey,” Llamas said. “Tingin namin ‘yung mga mock elections, iyon ang naging totoo.”

(In most of the mock elections we saw in schools and universities, Akbayan ranked first or second, but that didn’t show in the surveys. We believe it was the mock elections that reflected real sentiment.)

From select to broader base

Diokno, Hontiveros, and the Akbayan party-list have historically performed well in similar regions during past elections. These areas — the National Capital Region, Central Luzon, and Southern Tagalog — have consistently served as their strongholds where their messaging on human rights, good governance, and social justice tends to resonate the most.

While this alignment may appear encouraging on the surface, since it indicates a cohesive brand and credible public image, it also highlights the limitations of their current voter base and exposes blind spots. Expanding beyond their traditional strongholds required deliberate effort to reach voters who may be unfamiliar with their platform or skeptical of their politics.

“Ang masama dito, habang palayo nang palayo, pababa nang pababa ang boto,” Ayson said, referring to election results in the past. (The unfortunate part is, the farther out we went, the fewer votes we got.)

The results of the 2025 elections demonstrated that the strategy paid off. A closer look at the data reveals that the provinces where Akbayan secured a large share of the party-list votes had already expanded beyond the traditional strongholds of Hontiveros and Diokno as seen in the 2022 elections.

The 2025 results also showed a significant increase in votes for Akbayan in provinces where it previously received only modest support in the 2019 and 2022 elections. This is clear evidence that the party has successfully broadened its reach and gained substantial support nationwide.

One possible explanation for this turnout, according to Ayson, is the intense political turmoil stemming from the war between the Duterte and Marcos camps. Both factions were preoccupied with consolidating power and ensuring the success of their national candidates, after all. Much of their efforts and campaign resources then were concentrated on these high-stakes battles.

This resulted in party-list groups, which typically rely on alliances with dominant political forces, finding themselves pushed to the margins of the campaign landscape.

“Hindi na sila katulad noong 2022 at 2019 na very coherent ang galawan ng ibang big parties at alliances,” Ayson explained. “Maraming lugar na pinayagan na ang Akbayan na mag-campaign rally din.”

(They were no longer like in 2019 and 2022 when the movements of the big parties and alliances were very coordinated and controlled. This time, in many areas, Akbayan was already allowed to hold campaign rallies as well.)

Ready for 2028?

All eyes will be on Akbayan after it emerged as not just the top party-list group in the 2025 elections, but also as the record-breaker in terms of number of votes in Philippine history. It has not just amassed a strong following, but has also developed a solid line-up of politicians and leaders who could significantly shape the future.

But what is next for Akbayan? Hizon recalled saying in candid conversations with other party leaders that it seems that Akbayan’s latest victory has maxed out the party-list system.

“Sabi ko, parang mahirap na i-replicate ito, kasi where do we go from here?” he said. “Unless the party-list system is radically reformed, mahihirapan tayo ulitin iyong ganito.”

(I said, it feels difficult to replicate this because where do we go from here? Unless the party-list system is radically reformed, it will be hard for us to achieve this kind of success again.)

Reforms in the system, according to analysts, could refer to removing the ceiling of seats allowed for a winning party-list group, among others. But Hizon acknowledges that achieving this would require building allies in Congress.

Beyond this, and perhaps the elephant in the room, is the question of how Akbayan will leverage this win heading to the 2028 elections. The goal isn’t just reelection but also laying the groundwork to put an ally — or even one of its own leaders — in Malacañang.

Llamas is confident that Akbayan is ready for the “bigger, greater battles” in 2028. The party will just need to sustain the victory by recruiting more members and building better branding.

“What happened in the 2025 elections provides a strong impetus and momentum heading into 2028,” he said. “But the lessons, energy, and victories from this party-list race need to be scaled up in order to build a complete slate and mount a compelling presidential and vice-presidential campaign.”

For Hizon, the run-up to the 2028 polls will see Akbayan try to bring together more social movements, civil society, and political parties to build an electoral coalition. He hopes that by laying the groundwork early, whoever emerges as the presidential candidate will have the full support of a unified and mobilized movement from day one.

“These are important so we are more prepared going to 2028 para kung sinuman ang magiging presidential candidate, maaga pa lang ay maihanda na natin ang ating mga makinarya, naratibo, ang ating mga base,” Hizon said.

(These are important so that we are better prepared for 2028 so that whoever the presidential candidate may be, we can begin early to prepare our machinery, our narrative, and our grassroots base.) – Rappler.com

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