The 2007 election of members to the Senate of the Philippines was the 29th election to the Senate of the Philippines. It was held on Monday, May 14, 2007, to elect 12 of the 24 seats in the Senate. The winners in this election joined the winners of the 2004 election to form the 14th Congress of the Philippines. The senators elected in 2004 will serve until June 30, 2010, while the senators elected in this election will serve up to June 30, 2013. The elections to the House of Representatives as well as local elections occurred on the same date. The Philippines uses plurality-at-large voting for seats in the Senate.
In the election, the opposition-backed alliance called the Genuine Opposition (GO) defeated the administration-led alliance TEAM Unity by winning seven of the twelve seats in the Senate. For the first time in Philippine history, Antonio Trillanes was elected as a senator while currently detained for mutiny and rebellion charges. Almost the incumbents running for reelection won except for Ralph Recto who was at fourteenth place.
An electoral protest of GO's Koko Pimentel, the 13th placed candidate, against TEAM Unity's Migz Zubiri, the 12th place candidate, resulted in Zubiri's resignation in the Senate, and the Senate Electoral Tribunal's decision to replace Pimentel with Zubiri. This led to GO winning 8 seats, the biggest win by the opposition in the Senate election history since 1951, notwithstanding 2 other opposition candidates won, and only 2 administration candidates won.
The Old COMELEC Building after being razed by fire on March 11, 2007.
On March 11, 2007, the Old COMELEC Building in Intramuros, Manila was burned by a blazing fire ruining several ballot boxes and pending election protests. The Genuine Opposition considered the fire as political act which ended in burning of several election protests and contested ballot boxes. Investigators found out that instead of arson, it was the generator of the building which caused and since the building was built with tar and wood it would easily razed by fire. The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) faced scrutiny because of the fire that hit its old building on March 11 resulting in speculations of conspiracies to cheat on the May 14 elections.[1] The COMELEC was also lambasted for publishing on the internet the names, addresses and details of registered voters. [2]
The Aquino issue
Three people with the name Aquino filed their candidacies (Benigno Aquino III, Tessie Aquino-Oreta and Theodore Aquino), and there was confusion as to who is credited with a vote if someone wrote only "Aquino" on the ballot. Since Theodore Aquino was disqualified because he had dual citizenship and former Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta has the last name Oreta, COMELEC ruled that all votes with only the name Aquino would go to Tarlac Rep. Benigno Aquino III. All three Aquinos are related to each other.
The Cayetano issue
The matter was the same as the Aquino issue. Representative Alan Peter Cayetano (Taguig-Pateros) found out that a certain Joselito Cayetano belonging to the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) filed his candidacy with the nickname "Peter" which was really "Jojo". Alan therefore filed a disqualification case (SPA 07-019) against Jojo. Jojo was declared a nuisance candidate by the COMELEC resolution on March 27, 2007.
Jojo then filed for a motion for reconsideration which was eventually rejected on May 11, 2007, but COMELEC did not remove his name from the Official List of Senatorial Candidates and ruled on May 12, 2007, that all votes with only the name "CAYETANO" will be stray votes (discarded) and therefore not counted to either the candidates until Supreme Court resolved the matter. The COMELEC said that Jojo could file a motion for reconsideration at the Supreme Court within five days.
TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More) Unity was the administration-backed coalition composed mostly of supporters and erstwhile critics of then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. TEAM Unity sought to take several Senate seats in order to ensure the passage of President Arroyo's legislative programs and also to protect her from any impeachment attempts by the political opposition after the midterm elections. This coalition is composed by different major political parties including Lakas—Christian Muslim Democrats, Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino, Nationalist People's Coalition, Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino, and Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas. The coalition's campaign team was headed by veteran political strategist Reli German as campaign manager, together with Tourism SecretaryAce Durano as spokesperson and Ike Rodriguez as campaign director. TEAM Unity held their proclamation rally at the Cebu Coliseum on February 17, 2007.
Genuine Opposition (GO) was the main opposition-backed coalition of the parties' senatorial line-up for the elections, which was in opposition to President Arroyo. It was originally called the "United Opposition" (UNO), created by opposition stalwart and Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay in June 2005 to unite all politicians who sought to impeach President Arroyo. UNO then reorganized itself and changed its name to Grand and Broad Coalition (GBC), with the UNO party under that coalition. On February 15, 2007, the group changed its name again to Genuine Opposition after a meeting with Senate PresidentManny Villar in his office in Las Piñas.
Endorsements
Iglesia ni Cristo, a known religion being courted for its block voting, endorsed 6 TEAM Unity (TU) members (Ralph Recto, Joker Arroyo, Ed Angara, Mike Defensor, Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri, and Tito Sotto), Five Genuine Opposition (GO) senatorial bets (Loren Legarda, Manny Villar, Panfilo Lacson, Chiz Escudero, and Noynoy Aquino III), with one independent (Kiko Pangilinan).[3]Bayan Muna endorsed Legarda, Escudero, Cayetano, Pimentel, Roco, Coseteng, and Villar from GO; Arroyo and Recto of TU; and independent Pangilinan.[3]
On March 19, 2007, COMELEC released Resolution No.7832 which finalized and approved the official candidates for the senatorial election. On March 29, 2007, COMELEC certified 37 Senatorial Candidates.[4]
At this point in time, two senators are voluntarily retiring from the Senate at the end of their current term. As well four senators are term-limited by the Constitution of the Philippines after serving two consecutive terms. There was one vacancy left in the outgoing Senate as Noli de Castro (Independent) was elected as vice-president in 2004.
Opinion polling (locally known as "surveys") is carried out by two major polling firms: Social Weather Stations (SWS), and Pulse Asia, with a handful of minor polling firms. A typical poll asks a voter to name twelve persons one would vote for in the senate election.
Candidates who were not make it to the top 12, but were within the margin of error from the 12th-placed candidate, are denoted by figures inside the parenthesis.
The 12th Senate seat was contested between TEAM Unity's Migz Zubiri and GO's Koko Pimentel Zubiri was proclaimed In July 2007 with a margin of about 20,000 votes,[9] but Pimentel filed an electoral protest to the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET), which the tribunal accepted, alleging there was massive electoral fraud in Maguindanao.[10] After the revision of votes on Pimentel's protest in July 2009, he released a statement that he now leads Zubiri by 96,000 votes;[11] Zubiri countered that his counter-protest that alleges similar fraud in Mega Manila has him leading by around 132,000 votes in areas affected by his counter protest.[11]
In July 2011, suspended Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) governor Zaldy Ampatuan and Maguindanao election supervisor Lintang Bedol alleged that there was indeed fraud in the ARMM in favor of TEAM Unity.[12] On August 3, 2011, Zubiri resigned, maintaining that he had no hand in alleged electoral fraud in the ARMM.[13] He withdrew his counter-protest,[14] which led to the SET to proclaim Pimentel as the winner on August 11, 2011.[15] Pimentel took his oath at Mati, Davao Oriental, where he had the highest rank among the provinces, finishing in second place.[16]
Pimentel sued former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, COMELEC chairman Benjamin Abalos, Maguinadanao elections supervisor Lintang Bedol and others for electoral sabotage on August 17, 2011, at the Department of Justice (DOJ).[17] A joint DOJ-COMELEC panel began investigations on Pimentel's suit by November 3.[18] On November 18, 2011, the commission voted to file charges against Arroyo and others at the Pasay Regional Trial Court, which later ordered Arroyo, Abalos and Bedol arrested later in the day.[19]
In the tables below, it shows Zubiri winning, as he had served until 2011, or after the 2010 election (which also shows him holding the seat). In the 2013 election tables, it shows Pimentel as having held the seat.
Although the Genuine Opposition gained control of the Senate after the elections, they were divided on who was to be next Senate President. As such, Senate President Manuel Villar (Nacionalista) formed a bloc in the Senate to contest the Senate presidency. Facing him was the minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. backed by several fellow opposition senators. On July 26, 2007, Villar defeated Pimentel was elected to Senate by a vote of 15–7 with Villar and Pimentel voting for each other. Senator Antonio Trillanes was not allowed to attend the Senate session.[25]
This is how the election for the Senate presidency went:[25]
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