Bam Aquino: ‘Painful’ not to reach goal, but no regrets

Sen. Bam Aquino (File photo from his Facebook account)

MANILA, Philippines — Opposition Sen. Bam Aquino admitted on Wednesday he felt the pain of not being able to achieve his goal after losing in the May 13 elections.

“Syempre masakit na you had a goal at hindi mo naabot yung goal mo. Pero mas matibay naman tayo kesa diyan di ba?” Aquino said in an interview at his office in the Senate.

[Of course, it hurt if you have a goal and you didn’t reach that goal. But we’re stronger than that, aren’t we?]

The senator, in a statement earlier, accepted his defeat after he ranked 14th in the senatorial race.

He would continue to serve as senator until June 30 this year.

“There is no regret with our six years as a senator. There is no regret with having run in the 2019 elections kahit mahirap siya,” Aquino said.

In fact, he said, many had discouraged him to join the race as the opposition was seen as being in danger of losing.

“Pero naisip ko naman: Hindi naman pwedeng maduwag. Hindi naman pwedeng matakot sa laban. Hindi ka naman pwedeng senador lang kapag madali ang panahon. Kelangang senador ka rin kahit mahirap yung panahon,” he said.

[But I thought: You can’t be a coward. You can’t be scared of the fight. You can’t be a senator only if times are easy. You have to be a senator even when times are hard.]

Aquino then pushed through with his re-election bid as he ran along with seven other senatorial bets of opposition slate Otso Diretso. All eight opposition bets lost in the polls.

With the loss, Aquino feared that the independence of the Senate would be weakened.

“Ang balak sana namin mas patatagin yung independence sa Senado,” he said. “Ngayon na humina na siya, kelangang maging mas mapagmasid ang taumbayan pagdating sa mga pangyayari dito.”

[We were planning to strengthen the independence of the Senate. Now that it has been weakened, the people have to be more observant of what’s happening here.]

(Editor: Alexander T. Magno)