VICE President Sara Duterte expressed doubts about the 2025 midterm election results, claiming that the Duterte-allied candidates should have won Senate seats.
Duterte said during the Philippine Independence Day celebration in Malaysia on Thursday, June 13, 2025, that senatorial candidates from the PDP-Laban, like attorneys Jayvee Villanueva Hinlo Jr., Jimmy Bondoc, and Richard Mata, should have won.
"Tapos na naman ang kampanya, totoo yun, pero bakit nandito si Atty. Hinlo, Atty. Bondoc, Atty. Mata? Kasi po para sa akin at alam kong totoo, nanalo po sila sa eleksyon noong nakaraan (The campaign is over again, that's true, but why are Atty. Hinlo, Atty. Bondoc, and Atty. Mata here? Because for me, and I know it's true, they won the last election)," she said.
The vice president also revealed that, based on her talks with unnamed information technology (IT) experts, they also questioned the results.
She then urged the members of the PDP political party to question the election results.
"Kausap ko po IT experts na nagsasabi hindi talaga pwede na totoo yung mga numero na lumabas. Hindi po ako IT expert kaya sinabihan ko po ang PDP, sabi ko kayo ang partido, kwestyunin niyo kung paano ginawa ang proseso ng bilangan," Duterte said.
(I've spoken with IT experts who say the numbers that came out really can't be true. I'm not an IT expert myself, so I told the PDP, I said, 'You're the party, question how the vote-counting process was done.)
The vice president also bared similar observations during the 2022 elections.
"Karanasan ko po noong 2022, una ko pong nalaman na baka manalo ako bilang VP dahil una pong lumabas ang absentee voting, ang OFW vote, nakita ko po doon ang panalo ko (My experience in 2022 was that I first learned I might win as VP because the absentee voting, the OFW vote, came out first, and I saw my win there)," she said.
She said this was also what happened to the PDP-allied candidates; they won in the absentee voting.
"Lahat ng makadaupang kamay ko, lahat ng mayakap ko, lahat ng mahalikan ko sinasabi ko, dalhin niyo ang kodigo, vote straight tayo, 10 ang ating senators. Kaya po naniniwala talaga ako, sila ay ating mga senators (Everyone whose hand I shook, everyone I hugged, everyone I kissed—I told them, 'Bring the ballot guide, let's vote straight, we have 10 senators.' That's why I truly believe they are our senators),” she said.
In the recent elections, only incumbent senators Ronald dela Rosa and Bong Go, and Sagip party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta from the "DuterTEN" slate made it to the Magic 12. Representative Camille Villar and incumbent senator Imee Marcos, who were endorsed by the Marcos administration and eventually by Sara, also made it to the bottom of the top 12.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has not yet made any comment in relation to the vice president's statement. RGL