2007 Philippine Senate election

The Old COMELEC Building after being razed by fire on March 11, 2007.

On March 11, 2007 the Old COMELEC Building in Intramuros, Manila was burned by a blazing fire ruining several ballot boxes and pending election protests. The Genuine Opposition considered the fire as political act which ended in burning of several election protests and contested ballot boxes. Investigators found out that instead of arson, it was the generator of the building which caused and since the building was built with tar and wood it would easily razed by fire. The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) is facing scrutiny because of the fire that hit its old building on March 11 resulting in speculations of conspiracies to cheat on the May 14 elections . The COMELEC was also lambasted for publishing on the internet the names, addresses and details of registered voters.

Three people with the name Aquino filed their candidacies (Benigno Aquino III, Teresa Aquino-Oreta and Theodore Aquino), and there was confusion as to who is credited with a vote if someone wrote only "Aquino" on the ballot. Since Theodore Aquino was disqualified because he had dual citizenship and former Sen. Teresa Aquino-Oreta has the last name Oreta, COMELEC ruled that all votes with only the name Aquino would go to Tarlac Rep. Benigno Aquino III. All three Aquinos are related to each other.

The matter was the same as the Aquino issue. Representative Alan Peter Cayetano (Taguig City-Pateros) found out that a certain Joselito Cayetano belonging to the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) filed his candidacy with the nickname "Peter" which was really "Jojo". Alan therefore filed a disqualification case (SPA 07-019) against Jojo. Jojo was declared a nuisance candidate by the COMELEC resolution on March 27, 2007.

Jojo then filed for a motion for reconsideration which was eventually rejected on May 11, 2007 but COMELEC did not remove his name from the Official List of Senatorial Candidates and ruled on May 12, 2007 that all votes with only the name "CAYETANO" will be stray votes (discarded) and therefore not counted to either the candidates until Supreme Court resolved the matter. The COMELEC said that Jojo could file a motion for reconsideration at the Supreme Court within five days.

TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More) Unity is the administration-backed coalition composed mostly of supporters and erstwhile critics of current Philippine president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. TEAM Unity seeks to take several Senate seats in order to ensure the passage of President Arroyo's legislative programs and also to protect her from any impeachment attempts by the political opposition after the midterm elections. Team Unity is composed by different major political parties in the country such as the Lakas – Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (KAMPI), Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC), Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP), and the Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (PDSP). The campaign team of TEAM Unity is headed by veteran political strategist Reli German (campaign manager), Tourism Secretary Ace Durano (spokesperson) and Ike Rodriguez (campaign director). TEAM Unity had their proclamation rally at the Cebu Coliseum last February 17, 2007.

Genuine Opposition (GO) is the main opposition-backed coalition of the parties' senatorial line-up for the elections, which is in opposition to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. It was originally called the "United Opposition" (UNO), created by opposition stalwart and Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay on June 2005 to unite all politicians who wanted to impeach President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. UNO then reorganized itself and changed its name to Grand and Broad Coalition (GBC), with the UNO party under that coalition. On February 15, 2007 the group changed its name again to Genuine Opposition after a meeting with Senate President Manny Villar in his office in Las Piñas City.

• Juan Flavier: Term-limited in 2007.
• Ramon Magsaysay Jr.: Term-limited in 2007.

• Franklin Drilon: Term-limited in 2007, return in 2010.

• Loi Ejercito: Retiring from the Senate.
• Alfredo Lim: Ran and won for Mayor of Manila.

• Sergio Osmeña III: Term-limited in 2007, campaigned for the Genuine Opposition, return in 2010.

Candidates who were not make it to the top 12, but were within the margin of error from the 12th-placed candidate, are denoted by figures inside the parenthesis.

^1 replaced by Koko Pimentel as a result of an election protest.

Party		Popular vote			Breakdown				Seats
		Total	%	Swing	Entered	Up	Not up	Won	End 13th	14th	%	+/−
	Lakas || 59,973,862 || 22.3% || 9.5% || 7 || 3 || 3 || 1 || 6 || 4 || 16.7% || 2
	NPC || 48,766,327 || 18.1% || 18.1% || 4 || 0 || 0 || 2 || 0 || 2 || 8.3% || 2
	UNO || 33,965,338 || 12.6% || 12.6% || 3 || 1 || 0 || 2 || 1 || 2 || 8.3% || 1
	Liberal || 28,843,415 || 10.7% || 1.1% || 2 || 2 || 2 || 2 || 4 || 4 || 16.7% ||
	Nacionalista || 27,125,724 || 10.1% || 10.1% || 2 || 1 || 1 || 2 || 2 || 3 || 12.5% || 1
	LDP || 12,657,538 || 4.7% || 4.7% || 1 || 1 || 1 || 1 || 2 || 2 || 8.3% ||
	KAMPI || 11,802,870 || 4.4% || 4.4% || 1 || 1 || 0 || 1 || 1 || 1 || 4.2% ||
	PDP–Laban || 10,984,807 || 4.1% || 4.1% || 1 || 1 || 1 || 0 || 1 || 1 || 4.2% ||
	Aksyon || 8,457,710 || 3.1% || 0.5% || 1 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0.0% ||
	PDSP || 2,488,553 || 0.9% || 0.9% || 1 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0.0% ||
	KBL || 2,436,193 || 0.9% || 0.7% || 7 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0.0% ||
	Ang Kapatiran || 1,877,293 || 0.7% || 0.7%|| 3 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0.0% ||
	PGRP || 123,602 || 0.0% || 0.0%|| 1 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0.0% ||
	PMP || 0 || 0.0% || 2.2% || 0 || 1 || 3 || 0 || 4 || 2 || 8.3% || 2
	PRP || 0 || 0.0% || 4.8% || 0 || 0 || 1 || 0 || 1 || 1 || 4.2% ||
	Independents || 19,605,622 || 7.3% || 0.5% || 3 || 0 || 0 || 1 || 1 || 1 || 4.2% ||
Totals		269,109,091	100.0%	--	37	11	12	12	23	23	95.8%

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Numbers in percentages. Conducted by ABS-CBN and Pulse Asia.

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Partial and Unofficial - 197,084 of 224,748 precincts or 87.69% of total precincts. June 2, 2007 11:41 p.m. Batch 43.

Source: NAMFRELPHILIPPINES.org website

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The 12th Senate seat was contested between TEAM Unity's Juan Miguel Zubiri and GO's Koko Pimentel Zubiri was proclaimed In July 2007 with a margin of about 20,000 votes,[12] but Pimentel filed an electoral protest to the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET), which the tribunal accepted, alleging there was massive electoral fraud in Maguindanao.[13] After the revision of votes on Pimentel's protest on July 2009, he released a statement that he now leads Zubiri by 96,000 votes;[14] Zubiri countered that his counter-protest that alleges similar fraud in Mega Manila has him leading by around 132,000 votes in areas affected by his counter protest.[14]

On July 2011, suspended Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) governor Zaldy Ampatuan and Maguindanao election supervisor Lintang Bedol alleged that there was indeed fraud in the ARMM in favor of TEAM Unity.[15] On August 3, 2011, Zubiri resigned, maintaining that he had no hand in alleged electoral fraud in the ARMM.[16] He withdrew his counter-protest,[17] which led to the SET to proclaim Pimentel as the winner on August 11, 2011.[18] Pimentel took his oath at Mati, Davao Oriental, where he had the highest rank among the provinces, finishing in second place.[19]

Pimentel sued former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, COMELEC chairman Benjamin Abalos, Maguinadanao elections supervisor Lintang Bedol and others for electoral sabotage on August 17, 2011 at the Department of Justice (DOJ).[20] A joint DOJ-COMELEC panel began investigations on Pimentel's suit by November 3.[21] On November 18, 2011, the commission voted to file charges against Arroyo and others at the Pasay Regional Trial Court, which later ordered Arroyo, Abalos and Bedol arrested later in the day.[22]