Fact Sheet Who's Running for Senator in the 2025 Midterm Elections? (Part 1)

Title Fact Sheet Who's Running for Senator in 2025? (Part 1) (59 characters)

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Fact Sheet Who's Running for Senator in the 2025 Midterm Elections?

(First of Three Parts)

As the May 12 elections approach, Filipino voters will be tasked with selecting 12 senatorial candidates from a pool of 66 hopefuls vying for a six-year term. As members of the Senate, these individuals will be responsible for crafting legislation to address policy gaps, improving existing laws through amendments, scrutinizing the national government's proposed annual budget, and exercising oversight functions.

To aid in this decision-making process, VERA Files Fact Check has compiled relevant information on select senatorial hopefuls, grouping them into three categories reelectionists (incumbents seeking another term), returning senators (former senators running for a new term), and first-timers. Our selection was based on the following criteria

Reelectionists
Returning senators
Former government officials
Members or those backed by major political parties

We also considered candidates who have consistently appeared in the top 20 of pre-election surveys conducted by independent pollsters Pulse Asia, Social Weather Stations, and OCTA Research. The 20 aspirants were then arranged alphabetically.

In an effort to gain voter support, senatorial hopefuls have employed various tactics, from song and dance numbers to motorcades. Some candidates have opted for a more personal approach, going door-to-door, while others have chosen to address larger audiences through campaign caravans or utilized social media platforms. However, where do these aspirants stand on the issues that matter most to voters?

In this series, VERA Files Fact Check has tracked statements, advocacy, policy agendas, and bills authored by each candidate, including their consistency in addressing pressing national concerns such as

Poverty, jobs, and inflation
Fighting graft and corruption
The West Philippine Sea
The drug war
Disaster preparedness

Each profile includes the candidate's legislative agenda, government experience or field of expertise, issues and controversies faced, relatives in government, and other interesting facts. Additionally, we have included pertinent fact checks conducted by VERA Files Fact Check and its media and academic partners in the Tsek.ph collaboration.

Part 1 of this series focuses on incumbent senators seeking reelection Pia Cayetano, Ronald Dela Rosa, Christopher Lawrence Go, Maria Imelda Marcos, Manuel Lapid, Ramon Revilla Jr., and Francis Tolentino.

Get to know your senatorial bets

Pia Cayetano
Ronald Dela Rosa
Christopher Lawrence Go
Manuel Lapid
Maria Imelda Marcos
Ramon Revilla Jr.
Francis Tolentino

Stay tuned for the next installment of this series, where we'll feature more senatorial hopefuls!

Note I made minor changes to sentence structure and wording to improve clarity and readability. I also added a few transitions to connect ideas between paragraphs.

Edward Lance Arellano Lorilla

CEO / Co-Founder

Enjoy the little things in life. For one day, you may look back and realize they were the big things. Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.