Kiko Pangilinan eyes Senate comeback

Former senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan on Tuesday filed his certificate of candidacy (COC) for senator for the 2025 midterm elections.

Pangilinan, who was accompanied by his wife, actress Sharon Cuneta in filing his COC, said he will work towards bringing the prices of rice and other basic commodities down just like how he was able to contribute such effort during the administration of former President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III as the presidential adviser on food security.

"Malaking problema ulit ngayon ang mataas na presyo ng bigas, kaya nais kong muling ibalik ang dati na nating nagawa," Pangilinan said, adding that the Aquino administration was able to reduce rice inflation from 15% to .8% within a year in 2014.

(The high prices of rice is a huge problem again today. That is why I want to bring back what we did before.)

Pangilinan, the principal author of the Sagip Saka law, ran for vice president during the 2022 polls but lost to Sara Duterte.

He is trailing pre-election polls, but Pangilinan remains unfazed.

"Surveys are different from election day results. There are those who ranked high early on but lost, and those who ranked low initially but won. This is an uphill battle, but we will have to do our darndest best. Manglilimos tayo ng boto (We will appeal for votes). We will work hard to make each vote count," Pangilinan added.

Meanwhile, his wife Sharon admitted that she feels hurt whenever she hears criticisms about Pangilinan’s accomplishments.

“Kapag may sinasabi, nasasaktan po ako dahil fifth time na pong tumakbo ng asawa ko simula nung halos bago-bago kaming kasal,” Sharon told reporters.

(Whenever I hear something negative, I feel hurt because this is already the fifth he ran for elections since we got married.)

“When they say na walang nagawa si Kiko, that hurts us so much kasi we know how hard he is working. Lahat naman po ‘yan ay mahahanap sa Internet.”

(When they say that Kiko has done nothing, that hurts us so much because we know how hard he is working. You can all find his accomplishments on the Internet.)

Pangilinan served as a senator from 2001 to 2013 and again from 2016 to 2022.

He was supposed to run for reelection in the Senate in 2022, but he was tapped as the running mate of opposition standard bearer Leni Robredo.

Other aspirants who filed their COCs for senator for the 2025 polls during the last day of COC filing include:

• Peter “Bikoy” Advincula;
• Fernando Advincula;
• Joseph Delgado;
• Eric Alcantara;
• Rosalyn Corazon;
• Romulo San Ramon; and
• Sagip party-list lawmaker Rodante Marcoleta, among others.

READ: LIST: Senatorial aspirants for Eleksyon 2025

Aspirants have until 5 p.m. on Tuesday, October 8, to file their COCs. —KG/RSJ, GMA Integrated News