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BATANGAS CITY, Philippines – Senatorial candidates Bam Aquino and Kiko Pangilinan got the highest number of votes from the mock senatorial election polls conducted in three universities in Calabarzon conducted in March, April, and February.
These universities are the University of the Philippines-Los Baños (UPLB), Southern Luzon State University (SLSU), and Batangas State University (BatStateU).
UPLB’s top senatorial picks
In a Facebook post, UPLB released the result of the university’s senatorial mock polls held from March to April, with Pangilinan on top with 76.6% or 543 votes of more than 700 individuals who participated in the survey.
He was followed by Aquino and Danilo Ramos, both at second spot with 76.3%, or 541 votes. The rest who got into the Magic 12 are Teodoro “Teddy” Casiño (73.5%) Arlene Brosas (71.5%), Luke Espiritu (70.9%), Heidi Mendoza (70%), Ronnel Arambulo (69.8%), France Castro (69.7%), Liza Maza (57.4%), Leody de Guzman (45.6%), and Jocelyn Andamo (34.4%).
To learn more about these senatorial candidates and others, head to Rappler’s 2025 election site, which has a complete compilation of profile pages of senatorial candidates. These pages contain information from official election documents and Rappler journalism.
University Student Council Chairperson Mark Angelo Roma explained the primary reason for conducting a senatorial polls in their campus.
“Ang dahilan naman kung bakit nag-conduct ang UPvote ng senatorial and partylist mock polls sa UPLB ay para alamin ang voting preference ng mga mag-aaral, faculty, staff at REPS ng campus,” Roma told Rappler.
(UPvote conducted the senatorial and partylist mock polls at UPLB to determine the voting preference of the students, faculty, and staff.)
“Aside from that, it’s a good avenue to have these kinds of initiatives to spark discussions among students and other sectors within the university about the issues faced by the community and the politics at play with regards to those issues,” he added in a mix of Filipino and English.
Roma also shared his insights about the reason behind the results of their survey.
“The result of the mock polls show a lot about the principles that the UPLB community have. From it, we may infer the dismay of the UPLB community [with] traditional politicians, and them aligning more with the progressive candidates such as those from the Makabayan Coalition, as well as Kiko Pangilinan and Bam Aquino,” he said.
He cited the same reason to explain the result of their party list mock poll. “Same can be said with the partylist results with Kabataan Partylist topping the mock elections. This means that the UPLB community sees themselves as the representatives of KPL, especially towards the education sector,” said Roma.
The poll was done online through Google Forms from March 19 to April 11, and was open to all university students, faculty, staff, and UPLB representatives. Aside from the senatorial candidates, party list preferences were also included in the survey which was topped by Kabataan, followed by Akbayan Partylist.
BatStateU’s top senatorial picks
Bataan State University students chose Bam Aquino as their top candidate in the university senatorial preference survey with 94.1% votes of 475 students who participated in the survey. At second spot is Kiko Pangilinan with 92.2% votes.
The others in the top 12 are Heidi Mendoza (88.6%), Luke Espiritu (77.3%), Ka Leody de Guzman (62.7%), Danilo Armos (60.6%), Arlene Brosas (48.6%), Teddy Casiño (48.4%), Ronnel Arambulo and Sonny Matula (46.7%), ACT Teachers Representative France Castro (40.6%), and Norman Marquez (26.9%).
Niel Christian Marasigan, one of the editors-in-chief of The Lathe, said in an interview that they conducted the survey to learn about the pulse of the BSU community.
Marasigan also mentioned the importance of conducting university polls as it encourages participation and engagement of students during elections.
“’Yung political participation is very important, especially youth engagement sa mga ganitong bagay. ‘Yung pakikialam, ‘yung mayroon tayong gustong sabihin sa mga mas matatanda sa atin, sa pamamagitan ng pakikilahok natin sa mga ganong bagay, malaking bagay ‘yon eh,” he told Rappler.
(Political participation is very important, especially youth engagement, when it comes to these matters. Speaking up, letting our elders know we have something to say, by participating in initiatives like this, is a big deal.)
He acknowledged how surveys conducted in universities don’t always reflect the actual election results.
“Kasi nakita na natin ‘to before. Ang dami sa mga state universities, ang tataas ng rankings ng mga preferred na candidates for good governance, pero sa masa talo talaga eh, ‘ di ba. And siguro ito lang ay reminder na we shouldn’t be complacent regardless of the result [of the survey],” he said.
(We’ve seen this before. Candidates for good governance rank high in many state universities but lose in among the Filipino masses. This is a reminder that we shouldn’t be complacent regardless of the survey results.)
“Whatever the result, that is an indicator that we can’t just relax. We need to campaign for candidates we truly believe should have a Senate seat,” he said in Filipino.
The senatorial mock poll was conducted by The Lathe, the official student publication of the university. The survey was held from March 25 to April 2, together with the gubernatorial preference survey. Results showed 42.2% of respondents abstaining from the gubernatorial vote, while 49.9% favored Batangas Governor Dodo Mandanas for vice governor.
SLSU’s top senatorial picks
Kiko Pangilinan ranked first in the senatorial mock elections held in SLSU with 76.81% or 1,623 votes out of 2,113 respondents. Bam Aquino followed him with 74.78% of votes.
The others are Heidi Mendoza (59.44%), Luke Espiritu (45.72%), Ka Leody de Guzman (40.27%), Danilo Ramos (30.86%), Teddy Casiño (25.60%), Norman Marquez (25.13%), Arlene Brosas (23%), Ping Lacson (21.44%), France Castro (19.12%), and Sonny Matula (18.13%).
The Kingfisher SLSU editor in chief Karl Jerome del Mundo shared the reason why their publication conducted the mock poll.
“It has been a practice of ours every national elections to conduct mock polls, so we can see the choice of the majority of SLSU students,” Del Mundo told Rappler.
Del Mundo also emphasized the importance of student publications engaging in socio-political activities.
“Cliche as it may sound but publications of universities should give voice to the students. Their stances should be amplified because it reveals the socio-political atmosphere of the university and its community, and it affects each and every student of SLSU,” he said.
Del Mundo views the results of the poll positively, although they differ from results of national surveys conducted by firms like Social Weather Stations or Pulse Asia in the last few months. Their mock elections mirror the results of mock elections in other universities.
“The mock polls were great because senatorial candidates with progressive initiatives topped overall in SLSU,” he said.
Del Mundo, however, expressed dismay as “in the latter parts of the Magic 12, questionable personalities were still included.”
“Maybe it highlights that on top of the need for appropriate electoral education, politics should be a compassionate discourse among many sectors and ages,” he said.
The university-wide mock election was held from February 14 to 27. It was initiated by The Kingfisher SLSU, the university’s official student publication.
What Pulse Asia surveys say
A majority of the senatorial candidates who got into the winners’ circle in the three university polls are not among the voters’ preferences in the survey conducted by Pulse Asia Research, Incorporated from March 23 to 29.
Ping Lacson and Bam Aquino are the only candidates who got into both the Magic 12 of the university surveys and the Pulse Asia survey results. Lacson, who ranked 10th in the SLSU polls, placed 7th in the nationwide survey.
Meanwhile, Aquino who was consistently in the top two of the university polls, was in 11th spot in the Pulse Asia survey.
Despite holding the top spot in the Calabarzon university mock elections, Kiko Pangilinan ranks 14th rank in the March Pulse Asia survey. The top three candidates in the Pulse survey are Senator Bong Go, ACT-CIS Representative Erwin Tulfo, and Senator Bato dela Rosa. – Rappler.com
Wince Armel C. Manlogon is a Rappler Mover, or civic engagement volunteer, studying BS Psychology in Batangas State University – The National Engineering University – Pablo Borbon. He is an active student-leader in The Quezon Young Leaders Organization, advocating for socio-civic engagement in his hometown, Municipality of Quezon, in Quezon province.
The Movers Program 2025 is supported by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in the Philippines.
