Kiko Pangilinan Rings the Alarm on Our Food Crisis

In the days after the 2022 elections, when the ticket of Leni Robredo and Kiko Pangilinan was defeated by the UniTeam tandem of Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte, Pangilinan saw firsthand what was lost, but also what was gained.

Their campaign in 2022 saw an outpouring of support that, while somewhat naive, was built on hope. It felt entirely new but also a return to something akin to People Power. After the loss, the challenge then focused on how to keep this newfound movement going.

“Everywhere we went, I remember after the 2022 elections, there was a very emotional bond between our supporters,” Pangilinan tells Rolling Stone Philippines. “Many were depressed, and, you know, traumatized. And I said this during the 2025 campaign: Nasaktan tayo. Masakit ‘yon. ‘Yong minahal mo at nasaktan ka. Pero hindi ibig sabihin na hindi dapat tayo magmahal.”

After three long years and a gruelling senatorial run, Pangilinan can finally call himself a winner again. He finished fifth, garnering a total of 15,343,229 votes, shocking everyone, including pundits, analysts, and even himself. (For context, Pangilinan had around six million fewer votes when he ran for vice president and roughly as many votes as Robredo’s presidential bid in 2022.)

Pangilinan is not taking any of this for granted, nor is he resting on his laurels. A staunch advocate of the country’s agricultural sector, Pangilinan is keenly aware of the current plight of hunger and food security in the Philippines and plans to address it before it gets any worse. “We’re not doing enough to feed our people. It’s a shame something like this continues to plague us,” he says.

“The government is the single biggest buyer of food in the country annually. You have hospitals, provincial, city, and municipal jails. You have army camps, the Philippine National Police, feeding programs, and calamity relief. All these are food purchases, but the norm has been that it goes through a public bidding and immediately disqualifies farmers and fisherfolk organizations from this process, because it requires registrations, business permits, tax identification numbers, etc., and clearly, the farmers organizations don’t have those.” In 2019, Pangilinan authored the Sagip Saka Act to address this issue, but while it has been passed, he says it has not been fully implemented. He plans to change that during his term.

Beyond agriculture, Pangilinan hopes to bring his experience and knowledge to a Senate that’s more toxic than ever before. At a time when voters rejected the facade of celebrity candidates and focused on key issues, Pangilinan’s return signals a new mandate from a country in need of solutions.

The recent elections had a lot of surprises. What surprised you the most, especially after the win?
The win itself. [Laughs] Well, of course, landing number five was not expected at all, considering we were looking at the polling and throughout the campaign, from February up to May, we pretty much never made it, categorically, in the top 12. We were there in December, but it was… short and bittersweet, because we made it, and then came the attacks, particularly online. So yeah, number five was a surprise. In fact, when it first came out about 8:30 p.m. on the evening of the election, I thought it was fake news. I guess that’s the biggest surprise.

But compared to your campaign in the 2022 elections, did you have to do anything differently?
Well, we started earlier. In the 2022 elections, Vice President Leni Robredo decided at the last minute. I decided in the last five seconds. [Laughs]

This time, we did [it] differently. We hit the ground running after the 2022 elections and made sure that we avoided a repeat of not preparing early enough. We felt in 2022 that the outpouring of volunteerism and support was unprecedented; therefore, we had to continue to work on what we started.

In fact, when we lost in 2022, during the thanksgiving rally, I remember saying that we’re not done yet. I likened it to the first quarter of a basketball game. Sabi ko, “Tambak tayo pero ‘di pa tayo tapos.” When you’re committed to social transformation, there’s no such thing as failure, only delay. So we’re not done yet. We had to continue what we started. Therefore, we proceeded to organize, go around the country to continue with our message of food security.

What other problems do you think the country faces that are most urgent?
We need to address abuses in government.

In fact, when I was being attacked because of disinformation, repeatedly, they’d say, “Wala ka namang ginawa,” we’d turn that negative into a positive and say, “Wala kaming ginawang pangungurakot. Wala kaming ginawang pagsisinungaling.”

We carried that as part of our message, which again, is a continuation of what we started in 2022. I think that’s precisely a major factor in why we won. Instead of contributing and adding to the toxicity, we focused on a clear message as well as on our target issue.

This July, you start your term. In your first 100 days, what specific steps do you plan to take?
Clearly, the advocacy on food security requires us to look at what we are doing wrong. Why are food prices so high? Why is it that hunger incidence is the same as when we were on lockdown, when people lost their sources of income, lost their jobs, and were stuck at home? Hunger incidents were highest then, and it’s about the same now as in 2022. Clearly, that is something that we need to address in the first 100 days.

We’re already doing it now. We already wrote the letter to the president, because they’re now preparing the 2026 budget. They’re already putting it together in time for the State of the Nation Address. So now is the time to ask for support. We must increase budgetary support for the Department of Agriculture. We’re looking at increasing it by P100 billion every year for the next three years until the end of the administration’s term. So we’re going to work on that, too, on the first 100 days. It may not be approved, obviously, in the first 100 days, but the process of being able to put that together should start.

Read the rest of the story in The State of Affairs issue of Rolling Stone Philippines. Order a copy on Sari-Sari Shopping, or read the e-magazine now here.