CEBU CITY – Human rights lawyer Chel Diokno and former senators Bam Aquino and Francis Pangilinan on Friday, August 16, launched their senatorial bids here, nine months before midterm elections next year.

LAWYER Chel Diokno (seated left) and former Senators Bam Aquino and Francis Pangilinan, along with Sen. Risa Hontiveros, announce their senatorial bids in next year’s elections by unveiling the ‘CheKiBam’ campaign shirts on Friday, August 16, in a hotel in Cebu City. (Calvin D. Cordova)

They said that they decided to kick off their campaigns early as they learned some lessons from their debacle in the 2022 elections.

In that elections, Pangilinan lost as vice president to Sara Duterte while Diokno placed just 19th in the senatorial race.

Aquino served as the campaign manager of presidential candidate and Pangilinan’s running mate Vice President Leni Robredo who lost badly to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.

“When Ma'am Leni announced in October 2021, I became a campaign manager a day before that and Sen. Kiko became a vice presidential candidate on the same day. Everyone had to organize hurriedly and the campaign just ramped up in February. Although the momentum was high, the time was really short,” said Aquino in a press conference here on Friday, August 16.

The trio was tagged as “CheKiBam” – the names of the three presumptive candidates – by their supporters in Cebu.

Aquino said the lessons they learned will be applied in the elections.

“Now we are starting early. We recognize the importance of social media and we are seeing the mathematics in the Senate campaign because it’s not ‘Choose 1,’ its ‘Choose 12,’” said Aquino.

Pangilinan said it is important that they have to acknowledge the mistakes that they committed in the 2022 elections.

“If we have to move forward, we have to look to the past and see what we learned. Yes, we were defeated in 2022 but the people found their voice,” said Pangilinan.

The biggest lesson that they learned in 2022 was to decide early, said Pangilinan.

“You don’t decide at the last minute to prepare. You have to decide early. Leni decided at the last minute, Bam decided at the last 15 seconds, and I decided at the last five seconds. We have to learn from that. If we are to make a difference in 2025 and even beyond in 2028, the presidential election, we have to start now not so much as not to present our candidates but to prepare and organize our machinery,” Pangilinan said.

The trio was joined by Sen. Risa Hontiveros during the briefing. Hontiveros they plan to talk to former Senators Mar Roxas and Leila de Lima for their preparations.

“The original plan of the slate is to have a full slate, one dozen, and so far, we have three strong candidates. So it’s fight on for us, we are good to go for the coming months,” said Hontiveros.