1995 Philippine Senate election

← 1992 May 8, 1995 1998 →
12 (of the 24) seats in theSenate 13 seats needed for a majority
Alliance LABAN NPC Seats won 9 3 Popular vote 123,660,355 56,015,645 Percentage 67.71 30.67
Senate President before election Edgardo Angara Laban ElectedSenate President Edgardo Angara Laban

Politics of the Philippines
Government Constitution of the Philippines Charter Change Laws Legal codes Taxation
Executive President of the Philippines Bongbong Marcos (PFP) Vice President of the Philippines Sara Duterte (HNP) Cabinet (lists) Executive departments Local government
Legislature Congress of the Philippines 20th Congress Senate PresidentTito Sotto (NPC) House of Representatives SpeakerBojie Dy (PFP) Districts Party-list representation Bangsamoro Parliament Provincial boards City councils Municipal councils Barangay councils
Judiciary Supreme Court of the Philippines Chief JusticeAlexander Gesmundo Court of Appeals Court of Tax Appeals Sandiganbayan Ombudsman Regional Trial Courts Barangay justice
Constitutional commissions Civil Service Commission ChairpersonMarilyn Barua-Yap Commission on Audit ChairpersonGamaliel Cordoba Commission on Elections ChairpersonGeorge Garcia
Elections General 2019 2022 2025 Barangay 2018 2023 2026 Referendums
Political parties Akbayan Aksyon Lakas LDP Liberal Nacionalista NPC NUP PFP Reporma PDP UNA
Administrative divisions Capital Regions autonomous regions Provinces Cities Municipalities Barangays poblaciones sitios puroks
Related topics Foreign relations Human rights
Philippines portal Other countries
v t e

The1995 election of members to the Senate of the Philippines was the 25th election to the Senate of the Philippines. It was held on Monday, May 8, 1995, to elect 12 of the 24 seats in the Senate. Filipinos protected the ballot boxes with their lives and campaigned against politicians who usedbribery, flying voters, violence, electionrigging, stealing of ballot boxes, etc. ThePhilippine National Police (PNP) listed five people dead and listed more than 200 hotspots before and 300 hotspots during the election.

The two largest parties,Lakas–NUCD and theLaban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP, then known as Laban), contested the senate election under theLakas–Laban Coalition and won nine out of the 12 seats contested. The opposition-led coalition was composed of theNationalist People's Coalition (NPC) which had an alliance with thePeople's Reform Party (PRP), though they contested the election separately.

Philippine Senate elections are viapluraity block voting, with the entire country as anat-large "district". Each voter has 12 votes, and can vote for up to 12 candidates. Seats up were for the 13th to 24th placed candidates in 1992. This is the first time that 12 seats will be up, and where the usual operation of the 1987 constitution is followed.

This was also the first midterm election for the 1987 constitution, and the first since1971, as the date the elected candidates take office falls at the midway point of PresidentFidel V. Ramos' six-year term.

There were two major coalitions in this election:

• Lakas–Laban Coalition, a united ticket between the administration partyLakas–NUCD–UMDP (Lakas) and oppositionLaban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (Laban)
• Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC), other opposition politicians who against theFidel V. Ramos administration.

ThePeople's Reform Party (PRP) were initially a third party, but its primary candidate, defeated 1992 presidential candidateMiriam Defensor Santiago, was drafted into the NPC slate.

Notably, the COMELEC did not allow any independents to run, but candidates fromBicol Saro,Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (PDSP) and Partido Nacionalista ng Pilipinas (PNP; no relation to then moribundNacionalista Party) were allowed to run.

This was the first Senate election where there were term-limited incumbents.

1. Butz Aquino (Laban), term limited, ran for representative from Makati's 2nd district in 1998 and won
2. Joey Lina (Laban), term limited, ran forgovernor of Laguna and won
3. John Henry Osmeña (NPC), term limited, ran for representative fromCebu's3rd district and won; ran for senatorin 1998 and won
4. Santanina Rasul (Lakas), term limited; ran for senatorin 1998 andin 2001, both lost
5. Wigberto Tañada (Liberal), term limited, ran for representative fromQuezon's4th district and won; ran for senatorin 2001 and lost

1. Teofisto Guingona Jr. (Laban), appointedExecutive Secretary on July 6, 1993

As the counting of votes was ongoing on May 11, former SenatorAquilino Pimentel Jr. alleged that some senatorial candidates currently outside the unfinished tally's top twelve spots were beginning to rig votes by bribing people involved in the electoral process.^[1] Pimentel also shared that two of his fellow Lakas-Laban senatorial candidates revealed to him that a vote-buying scam called "Oplan Dagdag-Bawas" (lit. 'Add-Subtract') was occurring in Mindanao, where canvassers are bribed to shave off votes meant for Pimentel and transfer them to other candidates.[2] Pimentel later admitted that he lacks evidence for his claim, while a Comelec commissioner named Regalado Maambong dismissed the allegation as false.^[3] After the election, Pimentel established the Foundation for Clean Elections, Inc. inMandaluyong,Metro Manila to help prevent fraud in the country's elections.^[4]

By late 1995, theSenate Electoral Tribunal ordered to deduct more than 58,000 "unlawfully credited" votes forJuan Ponce Enrile inBataan andIsabela from his tally, alongside 10,000 votes forGringo Honasan and 7,000 votes forRamon Mitra.^[5]

In May 1996, Maambong reversed his stance from the previous year and revealed that Comelec has found evidence of widespread cheating during the election.^[6] Resureccion Borra, then executive director of Comelec, later stated that the 1995 election was the first time "dagdag-bawas" was committed on a massive scale, and announced that they will attempt to prosecute canvassers in the provinces ofIlocos Norte,Isabela,Bataan, andLanao del Sur.^[7][8] In July 1996, SenatorSerge Osmeña revealed that he discovered a 30,000 vote discrepancy for him inPasig City between the manual tally done by the Treasurer's Office and the certificates of canvass.^[9] By December, a regional trial court in Bataan ordered for the arrest of Cenon Uy, an assistant regional director for Comelec inCentral Luzon, for having allegedly tampered with election results in the region to favor the candidacy of Enrile,^[10] though he would remain in office until late 2000 when a pending court case against him forced his resignation.^[11]

On February 10, 2000, Antonio Llorente and Ligaya Salayon, who were respectively Pasig City prosecutor and member of the Pasig board of canvassers at the time of the election, was charged by theSupreme Court for violating election laws after they admitted their "honest mistake" of taking away votes from Pimentel and transferring them to Enrile.^[12] Llorente eventually went on indefinite leave from his position asJustice Undersecretary in September due to the Supreme Court standing by its ruling.^[13]

On September 11, 2000, Arsenia Garcia, who was chair of theAlaminos, Pangasinan municipal canvassers during the election, was convicted of electoral fraud by aRegional Trial Court in Alaminos due to her discarding more than 5,000 votes that were in favor of Pimentel, and sentenced to six years in prison.^[14]

TheLaban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (Laban) and theLakas–NUCD won four each, while theNacionalista Party, theNationalist People's Coalition (NPC),People's Reform Party (PRP), and an independent won one seat each.

Three incumbent Laban senators won:Gloria Macapagal Arroyo,Raul Roco, andFrancisco Tatad (originally elected as an NPC member).Nikki Coseteng was the sole NPC senator to successfully defend her seat.

Neophyte senators were Lakas'sFranklin Drilon,Juan Flavier,Ramon Magsaysay Jr., andSerge Osmeña, Laban'sMarcelo Fernan,Miriam Defensor Santiago of the PRP, and independentGregorio Honasan.

Returning wasJuan Ponce Enrile, who last served in the Senate in 1992.

Incumbents defeated were Laban'sRodolfo Biazon and NPC'sArturo Tolentino.

Key:

• ‡ Seats up
• + Gained by a party from another party
• √ Held by the incumbent
• * Held by the same party with a new senator
• ^ Vacancy

Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats
					Up	Before	Won	After	+/−
	Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino	63,402,619	34.72	−10.28	6	16	4	14	−2
	Lakas–NUCD	43,034,397	23.56	+5.96	1	2	4	5	+3
	Nationalist People's Coalition	29,381,030	16.09	−1.62	4	5	1	2	−3
	People's Reform Party	11,044,407	6.05	−3.83	0	0	1	1	New
	PDP–Laban	8,522,148	4.67	New	0	0	0	0	0
	Kilusang Bagong Lipunan	8,168,768	4.47	−0.12	0	0	0	0	0
	Bicol Saro	527,612	0.29	New	0	0	0	0	0
	Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas	482,328	0.26	New	0	0	0	0	0
	Partido Nacionalista ng Pilipinas	393,712	0.22	New	0	0	0	0	–
	Independent	17,669,807	9.68	+9.53	0	0	2	2	New
	Liberal Party				1	1	0	0	−1
Total		182,626,828	100.00	–	12	24	12	24	0
Total votes		25,736,505	–
Registered voters/turnout		36,415,154	70.68
Source:[15]

1. Rodolfo Biazon (Laban/Lakas–Laban), ran in1998 and won
2. Arturo Tolentino (NPC), retired from politics

• Commission on Elections
• Politics of the Philippines
• Philippine elections
• 10th Congress of the Philippines

• Official website of the Commission on Elections
• Official website of the House of Representatives

• Philippine Senate elections
• 1995 elections in the Philippines

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles with hCards
• Pages using bar box without float left or float right