Several sports personalities were candidates in the 2025 Philippine elections for national and local positions held on Monday.
Eight-division boxing world champion Manny Pacquiao was seeking a seat in the Senate, but sat outside the ‘Magic 12’ at 18th with 97.34% of the ERs processed in the partial and unofficial results. In the same race, Tito Sotto and Pia Cayetano, who were once athletes in bowling and volleyball, respectively, were poised to win Senate seats at 8th and 9th place.
In San Juan City, a number of former PBA players ran for office with Francis Zamora and Philip Cezar on opposing sides of the mayoral race.
Zamora was reelected to serve his third and final term after garnering 57,998 votes and was proclaimed by the city’s board of canvassers early Tuesday morning.
Other basketball stars James Yap, Don Allado and Renren Ritualo also sought council seats in San Juan with Yap and Allado taking posts.
Vergel Meneses also won another term as Bulakan, Bulacan mayor.
Dodot Jaworski, another former PBA player and the running mate of Vico Sotto in Pasig, was proclaimed vice-mayor on Tuesday.
Franz Pumaren, too, also won as congressman in Quezon City’s third district.
Lyceum of the Philippines University men’s basketball team head coach Gilbert Malabanan ran for councilor in San Pedro, Laguna. He was at 20th place in the race with 99.03% ERs processed.
There are also those outside basketball who ran for office with multi-titled swimmer Eric Buhain seeking for a congressional seat in the first district of Batangas while Richard Gomez (fencing) and Monsour del Rosario (taekwondo) ran for congressman in Leyte’s third district and vice mayor in Makati City, respectively.
Both Buhain and Del Rosario lost in their respective races, while Gomez won the two-man contest against Ching Veloso.
Delta Pineda, one of the assistant coaches for Converge in the PBA, won the vice governor race in Pampanga against his lone competitor Among Ed Panlilio. Basketball player Jeric Teng also won a seat in Gumaca, Quezon’s municipal council.
Check out the results of the races at GMA News Online’s Eleksyon 2025 microsite.
—JMB/JKC, GMA Integrated News
For more Eleksyon 2025 related content and updates, visit GMA News Online’s Eleksyon 2025 microsite.
