Former Senators Paolo Benigno "Bam" Aquino IV and Francisco "Kiko" Pangilinan on Tuesday were surprised by the overwhelming votes they received which unexpectedly brought them to the winning circle of the senatorial race in the partial and unofficial count of the 2025 midterm election.

Aquino who garnered the second highest number of votes said the result of the midterm poll although it is still unofficial is unexpected for him even for his team.

"We were surprised with the high standing... We were hoping to achieve 8th, 9th or 10th place so of course we are very happy that we are in second place and hitting more results in many areas in Luzon and Visayas," he said.

"This is so unexpected even for my team. It's unexpected for them and for me to get these high numbers of votes. We had a good feeling we would be able to enter the top 12 but we did not expect this high number of votes," he added.

Pangilinan was also surprised to enter the top five of the senatorial race noting previous election surveys where he and Aquino always get the lower ranking.

"I am very happy and thankful to our people, all of these are still unofficial but we didn't expect this kind of result because based on the surveys we are not in the top 12 and therefore we are also surprised," he said.

However, Pangilinan noted that during the last 2007 election he also got fifth place as an independent candidate.

It can be recalled that Aquino and Robredo are among the senatorial candidates that were endorsed by former Vice President Leni Robredo.

Days before the election, Julio Teehankee, a political analyst, emphasized the chance of Aquino and Pangilinan to win the midterm election if they get the votes from the supporters of Robredo.

Pangilinan added that Robredo was very happy with the result.

"She sent me a message saying she is very happy with the result so far it shows that Bam, me and Akbayan (partylist) will win," he said.

Pangilinan assures the public that he will focus on strengthening the country's food security which includes the full implementation of direct purchases of the local and national government to farmers and fishermen while Aquino vowed to work hard to help and address the needs of the people. Robina Asido/DMS