Bam Aquino is proclaimed as a senator-elect by the Commission on Elections, May 17, 2025. Handout/Team Bam Aquino

MANILA — Former Sen. Bam Aquino finished the 2025 midterm race with a stunning performance, surprising both analysts and the public by securing the No. 2 spot in the senatorial results despite being a laggard in surveys by institutional polling firms.

Aquino was proclaimed as senator on Saturday by the Commission on Elections, officially securing his political comeback in the Senate.

The senator-elect received a total of 20,971,899 votes based on official figures from the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC).

He ranked in the second spot, behind topnotcher Sen. Christopher "Bong" Go, a Duterte ally, who clinched a second term.

Aquino acknowledged that he faced a tall order at the start of the campaign period, pointing out that he did not even break into the Top 20, much less the Top 12.

"Ito pong pagtakbo ito ay kakaiba talaga. Nagsimula po tayo, napakalayo. Wala po tayo sa Top 12. In fact, wala nga po tayo sa Top 20 noong una po tayong nagsabi na tatakbo tayo," said Aquino, who thanked volunteers and the Filipino youth for propping up his campaign.

"Dahil po sa sipag at tiyaga ng mga napakaraming volunteers, napakaraming kabataan na nagsuporta ... Sa kabataang Pilipino, lubos-lubos po ang pasasalamat natin. Maraming, maraming salamat," he added.

Aquino ran on education and job platforms and was said to have benefited from the zeal of young voters and last-minute endorsements, including from the bloc-voting Iglesia Ni Cristo religious group.

Aquino joined his ally Senator-elect Kiko Pangilinan, who also made an unexpected showing in this year's elections by placing 5th in a race of 12.

"Ang binigay niyo pong mandato, hindi po sasayangin. Ang binigay niyo pong mandato, iingatan po natin," he said.

Last year, Aquino announced that he had left the Liberal Party and assumed the chairmanship of Katipunan ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino, said to be the country's youngest political party.

Aquino was a senator from 2013 to 2019. In the 2019 midterm polls, he failed to win his re-election bid under the "Otso Diretso" slate, placing 14th overall with 14,144,923 votes.

Aquino did not run for an elective position during the 2022 national elections and instead served as then-presidential candidate Leni Robredo's campaign manager.

Robredo ran for Naga City mayor in Halalan 2025 and won.