PUBLIC Works Secretary Vivencio “Vince” Dizon has been on an unmistakable mainstream media blitz for quite some time now, fueling speculation that he may be harboring dreams of a run for the Senate in 2028. If true, then he will neither be the first nor the last Cabinet secretary to be in that position.
Consistent with the trademark method of this columnist, I shall take a look at history and see how people in the same shoes fared by comparison. I want to see how Cabinet members performed in the senatorial elections immediately after they served in the Cabinet.
In the recent 2025 elections, several former members of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s official family ran for the Senate, including executive secretary Victor “Vic” Rodriguez, Local Government secretary Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos Jr., and Social Welfare secretary Erwin Tulfo. Of the three, Tulfo was the only one to successfully enter the “Magic 12” winners in the Senate race.
Tulfo only briefly served as a member of the Cabinet because his appointment was eventually blocked by the powerful Commission on Appointments in December 2022. Abalos, who placed 16th and well outside the winners’ circle, occupied a Cabinet post from Day 1 of the Marcos administration in 2022 to 2024. Both Tulfo and Abalos were part of the administration’s Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas slate in the 2025 elections.
Rodriguez was executive secretary for three months (June to September 2022); he resigned on the heels of a suspected falling out with Marcos. He ran under the opposition banner in the last elections, doing quite miserably by placing 23rd.
Tulfo was already a nationally prominent news anchor and had previously served as a party-list representative in the House of Representatives. His brother, Rafael (or “Raffy”), was also an incumbent senator. Abalos was a longtime mayor of Mandaluyong before joining the Marcos Cabinet. Rodriguez was the least recognizable among the voters, having been Bongbong Marcos’ spokesman before being appointed executive secretary.
In the 2022 elections, Public Works and Highways secretary Mark Villar was the only Cabinet member of President Rodrigo Duterte who successfully ran for the Senate. He became the third senator from the Villar family after his father, former Senate president Manuel (“Manny”), and mother, Cynthia. He is now joined in the Senate by a fourth Villar, his sister Camille, who won in the 2025 elections.
Not so lucky were presidential spokesman Harry Roque, Information and Communications Technology secretary Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan, and presidential legal counsel Salvador “Sal” Panelo. Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol also ran and lost in the 2022 senatorial elections. He served as Duterte’s agriculture secretary from 2016 to 2019 before becoming chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority from 2019 to 2021.
Villar, Roque and Honasan were legislators prior to serving in the Duterte Cabinet. Villar was a congressman from Las Piñas; Roque was a party-list representative; and Honasan was a four-term senator. Piñol had been a mayor, vice governor and governor in the province of North Cotabato from 1995 to 2010. Panelo has been a practicing lawyer since 1974.
In the 2019 elections, Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, special assistant to the president and head of the Presidential Management Staff, and Francis Tolentino, presidential adviser on political affairs, were successful in their respective senatorial bids. Go served as Rodrigo Duterte’s executive assistant and personal aide from 1998 onward. Tolentino previously chaired the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority during the incumbency of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III from 2010 to 2015 and was mayor of Tagaytay City from 1994 to 2004.
In the 2016 elections, Cabinet secretaries who won in the senatorial elections included Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, Leila de Lima and Joel Villanueva. Lacson was the presidential assistant for rehabilitation and recovery from December 2013 to February 2015. He is now a five-term senator. De Lima was Aquino III’s justice secretary until she ran for the Senate. Before that, she was the chairman of the Commission on Human Rights under President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo from 2008 to 2010. Villanueva served as director general of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority under Noynoy Aquino. Prior to that, he was a party-list representative.
Not so lucky was Jericho Petilla, Aquino’s energy secretary from 2012 to 2015, and governor of Leyte from 2004 to 2012 and from 2022 to the present.
No Cabinet-rank official ran for the Senate in the 2013 elections.
In the 2010 elections, National Economic and Development Authority director general Ralph Recto won a Senate seat, but Cabinet secretary Silvestre Bello III was not as fortunate. Recto was already a veteran legislator by 2010 and served in the Senate until 2022. Bello was appointed to various Cabinet-level positions during the administrations of Presidents Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Arroyo and Duterte. Marcos also appointed him to a diplomatic post from 2022 to 2024. He was also a one-time party-list representative.
Michael “Mike” Defensor was the lone Cabinet official who ran for the Senate in the 2007 elections. His bid was unsuccessful. Defensor served the Arroyo Cabinet in various capacities. Prior to that, he was a two-term congressman from Quezon City.
In the 2004 elections, several Cabinet secretaries in the Arroyo government ran for the Senate: Trade and Industry secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, Tourism secretary Richard “Dick” Gordon, and Environment and Natural Resources secretary Heherson Alvarez. Roxas and Gordon won, while Alvarez performed very poorly. Roxas and Alvarez were already veteran lawmakers by the time of the 2004 elections. Gordon was previously a longtime mayor of Olongapo City and served as chairman and administrator of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority from 1992 to 1998.
Due to limitations in space, I shall not be able to cover the 1992, 1995, 1998 and 2001 elections. Suffice it to say the data suggests that the transition from Cabinet secretary to the Senate is not a cakewalk. Many of the successful Cabinet members who became senators were already veteran lawmakers prior, which does not bode well for the suspected ambitions of would-be political neophyte Secretary Dizon.
A media blitz is also not a guaranteed recipe for success, historically.
