Former De La Salle law dean Chel Diokno, first nominee of the leading party list Akbayan in the May 12 polls, saw active social media presence and consistent messaging as factors of their victory.

The Akbayan partylist led the poll for the party-list race with 2,779,621 votes based on the National Certificate of Canvass (NCOC). They and at least 60 other groups will be proclaimed by the Comelec Monday afternoon.

In an interview with the Philippine Star YouTube page, Akbayan party-list first nominee Chel Diokno said they became more active in social media.

"Since I also have skills on different social media platforms, it was a good fusion in terms of our communication teams," he said.

"I have a lot of engagements with the schools, youth, and other youth organizations, so there was so much opportunity to generate content," he added. ''I am game to engage people in social media.''

Diokno said Akbayan had a very good tagline: ''Pagmahal mo, Akbayan mo'' (If you like it, embrace it). ''We sustained that message and we have been very disciplined with the messaging.''

Diokno, who had lost in two senatorial elections, chose to enter Congress through the partylist route. But pre-election surveys showed them below the top 10 and they had work hard to maintain their presence.

''We are very happy but at the same time, we are surprised. It is just starting to sink in now,'' said Diokno, who added that survey firms should revisit their methodology.

Diokno said Akbayan had to work very hard when surveys would show them out of the leaders.

Commission on Election (Comelec) chairman George Erwin Garcia revealed that millennials and Gen Z voters contributed the most in the historic 82.20 percent voter turnout in this midterm polls.

"Maybe, they were not able to get the sentiments of thyounger voting population who voted the most this year," Diokno responded when asked what caused Akbayan's surge. He cited a newspaper story that said the Gen-Z, those born between 1997 and 2012, accounted for 20 percent of votes from 11 percent in 2022.

Akbayan party list, according to Diokno, became disciplined with the tagline, "'Pag mahal mo, akbayan mo," which aligns with the track record of the party list.

"I think we were very disciplined with that messaging even in my stump speeches, on our social media, and traditional media, that is what we always emphasize," Diokno said.

As one of the platforms that contributed to Akbayan's win, "social media was vital in this election and will be more important in the future than traditional TV and radio," Diokno said. Kate Christian Ravelo/DMS