By Anthony Divinagracia

(May 17, 2025) – Picture this: Robin Padilla, Lito Lapid, Bong Revilla, Jinggoy Estrada, Manny Pacquiao, and Philp Salvador.

No, this is not the cast of the upcoming Philippine adaptation of the “Expendables.”

This was supposed to be one-fourth of the new Senate. But the election fates thought otherwise.

Except for Padilla and Estrada who are only in the middle of their terms, only Lapid secured the inside track to corner a Senate seat, based on official results of the 2025 election. Revilla is sitting at 14^th place while Pacquiao and Salvador are 18^th and 19^th, respectively. 

And let’s not forget Tito Sotto, Willie Revillame, and Jimmy Bondoc who all carved a niche in the entertainment business as well. But of the three, only Sotto, a former Senate President, won. Revillame, a long-time TV host and actor, languished at 22^nd place despite figuring in the Top 12 of several pre-election surveys.

Bondoc, a renowned recording artist before entering politics, did well for a first-timer, landing at 17^th place, ahead of bigger names like Pacquiao, Salvador, Revillame, reelectionist Francist Tolentino, One Rider Partylist Rep. Bonifacio Bosita, former state auditor Heidi Mendoza, former cabinet officials Vic Rodriguez and Raul Lambino, and former senator Gringo Honasan, among others.

Statistically, Lapid ranked first in vote-rich Pampanga where he served as governor before jumping into the Senate. The “Pinuno” and “Supremo” of primetime TV collected 645,342 votes in his home province. He placed 2^nd in Samar with 250,883 votes behind topnotcher Bong Go. Lapid also barged into the Top 12 in Isabela, Ifugao, Pangasinan, Zambales, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Bataan, Occidental Mindoro, Palawan, Camarines Norte, Sorsogon, Capiz, Antique, Northern Samar, and Misamis Occidental.

Revilla, also a re-electionist like Lapid, did not even top his long-time bailiwick of Cavite. The 2010 senatorial topnotcher was only 5^th in the province. He even ranked better at 4^th place in Apayao and Occidental Mindoro. Pacquiao, a global boxing icon and multimedia artist, was a proud son of Mindanao. But PacMan only placed once in the Top 12 (no. 8 in SOCCSKSARGEN) of the six Mindanao regions. He is 2^nd in Sarangani, 4^th in South Cotabato, and 5^th in General Santos City, where he has built a personal empire.

Salvador, who had no recognized bailiwick and an election neophyte, was 19^th overall. But the PDP-Laban machinery in Mindanao propelled him to a better spot against more seasoned opponents. Ipe ranked 4^th in Zamboanga Peninsula and SOCCSKSARGEN, and 5^th in Northern Mindanao, Davao Region, Caraga, and BARMM. Salvador was also 6^th in Central Visayas and 8^th in local absentee voting composed mainly of uniformed personnel and media. Bondoc also rode the same political wave as he placed 3^rd in Central Visayas and Caraga, 4^th in Northern Mindanao, Davao Region, and BARMM, 5^th in SOCCSKSARGEN, and 6^th in Zamboanga Peninsula. The former hitmaker was 4^th in local absentee voting.

Meanwhile, Sotto – a seasoned TV host, composer, and comedian – placed in the Top 12 of all Luzon regions but struggled in the Visayas and Mindanao.  Revillame only made it to the Top 15 in Mimaropa and Davao Region.

No shoo-ins

So, what happened to this election’s celebrity senatoriables?

With Sotto and Lapid, the meta-narrative that TV personalities are shoo-ins, owing to immense recall, may hold at least for now. For context, Tito Sen topped the 1992 race and was 3^rd in his 1998 reelection. In 2007, he lost a Senate comeback, placing 19^th despite running under the Arroyo administration ticket. By 2010, he recovered enough to make the cut at no. 9. In his 2016 re-election, Sotto again finished third. Just like in 2010, Sotto is currently 9^th place in the 2025 count. Lapid was 11^th in his Senate runs in 2004 and 2010, and 7^th in 2019. Incidentally, he is no. 11 in the 2025 polls.

Their placement in current and previous elections underscore the consistency, if not objectivity, of their electoral base. Voters pick them as alternatives, sometimes additives, to spice up a potentially bland list of bureaucrats, technocrats, oligarchs, academics, and community leaders as choices. Pambalanse, in election parlance. On this note, Sotto, Lapid, and perhaps Revilla and Estrada are deemed flexible, if not compromise picks compared to candidates with distinct ideological qualities or hardcore political leanings.  

And what do we make of the 2025 debacle of Revilla, Pacquiao, and Revillame? They are household names, but the gist stops there. Revilla, for one, enjoyed relatively high voter awareness and preference in various pre-election surveys. He even ranked as high as no. 2 in the December 2024 survey of SWS, and no.5 in the April 20-24 Pulse Asia survey which was released a few days before election. Pacquiao placed as high as 7^th in the January 2025 SWS survey but gradually slipped between the 8^th to 15^th places in SWS and Pulse Asia polls two months before E-day. Revillame was in the same pre-election bunch as Pacquiao, straddling between the 8^th to 14^th spots. The magnetic personalities of Revilla, Pacquiao, and Revillame are beyond question, given their innate crowd-drawing powers as seasoned entertainers.

But the cushioning they built thinned as election issues thickened and the contest tightened by mid-April. In contrast, Sotto and Lapid padded enough cushion based on pre-election polls to avoid hitting the deck come election time. Sotto ranked 2-4 in the last Pulse Asia and 4-5 in the final SWS surveys, respectively. Lapid meanwhile, hovered at 5-11 in the last Pulse Asia, and 4-5 in the final SWS surveys, respectively.

“Self-inflicted wound”

Of the candidates who came from the entertainment industry, Bondoc and Salvador gained sizeable traction following the ICC arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte. It was a sympathy surge for the pro-Duterte candidates. Bondoc and Salvador, two of the more popular PDP-Laban candidates, tapped on the massive air and ground support of the Duterte machinery, especially in Mindanao. They even bettered pre-election forecasts. Bondoc overcame a predicted 23^rd ranking while Salvador matched his 19-20 projection, both in the last SWS survey. In the final Pulse Asia poll, Bondoc was 20-22, while Salvador was 14-18. Had there been more time in the run-up to May 12 and with voting preferences evolving, Bondoc and Salvador may have pulled off a Rodante Marcoleta, a survey laggard who surprised pollsters and pundits alike by seizing the no. 6 spot in the official tally.

Did Salvador and Bondoc entertain? Yes. One crooned a dedication song to the former president. The other performed his campaign jingle. But the difference lies in the messaging. The Alyansa celebrities hardly pressed on thorny issues like the ICC arrest of ex-president Duterte and the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte. The impeachment specifically was a “self-inflicted wound” for the Alyansa candidates, as campaign manager Toby Tiangco described. Bondoc and Salvador, despite being newcomers to the game, played the loyalty card well, consequently endearing them to the Duterte faithful. In a way, Duter-Ten succeeded in turning the midterm election into an impeachment referendum that resonated well with the public. Five Duterte allies won. Two of them were both endorsed by President Bongbong Marcos and VP Sara Duterte.

The Alyansa celebrities preferred to highlight their personal brand and legislative record than attack non-senatorial candidates like the former president and her daughter. To point the sword at the Dutertes as a campaign rhetoric is to drag the Solid South into a fistfight with lethal consequences. To avoid the ICC arrest and impeachment as campaign topics is to court, albeit remotely, soft Duterte supporters. By “soft”, we mean voters who are open to mixing other candidates with members of the Duterte slate. At least that’s the idea. Yet this supposed soft picking barely nudged the numbers for most of Alyansa’s celebrity candidates. The Solid South picked celebrities but not Revilla, Pacquiao, Revillame, Sotto, or Lapid, who also needed the Solid North, the Southern Luzon corridor, and the Visayas to bolster their winnability. But Bam Aquino and Kiko Pangilinan overshadowed them in those areas. In the end, only Sotto and Lapid survived the green and yellow onslaughts.

Reinvention is key

Are celebrity politicians just for show? Not exactly. Some of them, despite personal controversies, have earned their political keep as legislators. To their credit, Sotto, Revilla, Lapid, Estrada and Pacquiao have authored and sponsored several landmark laws. The “Lapid Law” mandates free legal assistance for the poor. Revilla had the Expanded Centenarians Act enacted into law. Sotto was the principal author of the Medical Scholarship Act. Estrada penned the Kasambahay Law. Pacquiao authored laws increasing the excise tax on alcohol and tobacco products. No doubt, their media populism also fueled their heroic appeal, turning make-believe into just-believe. But to the chagrin of the voting public, some of these celebrity politicians, the happy aberration they have embraced to reject the status quo, have turned more dynastic than heroic. In fact, these celebrity politicians today have sired their own dynasties and bailiwicks to challenge the old clans and moneyed members of the provincial or municipal gentry. They have become the new political aristocracy, awash in riches and repute.

But how do we explain the low survival rate of celebrity politicians in this year’s election?

Celebrity fatigue?

Political enlightenment?

Or both? Some observers point to Robin Padilla and his supposed underperformance despite finishing on top of the 2022 Senate race. Sotto and Revilla were once topnotchers.

If the results are any indication, the Filipino voter had seen enough of the stage spectacle, on and off the Senate. Yes, they have elected old names back to power. But for celebrity politicians, the standards diverge. The public expects them to diligently debunk the “walang alam” and “artista lang ‘yan” imputations by outperforming, if not keeping pace with the grizzled statesmen of their time, as effective fiscalizers and policymakers.

The celebrity greenhorns from the Duterte camp will likely mount a comeback in 2028. Revilla, Pacquiao, and perhaps Revillame can do the same. Reinvention favors good intention. Sotto, Lapid, Padilla, and Estrada – the remaining celebrity politicians in the Upper House – need to prove, more than ever, that the formula still works. Or perhaps, what they offered at the electoral table is still politically palatable for a hungry and weary public, beyond one-off ayudas wrapped in conditional charity and partisan promises.

The public is never expendable.

Yes, it deserved to be entertained – by good governance as performance.

And served well.

It starts with slowly changing the cast of characters in the Senate.