Ben Tulfo files COC for Senator

Metro Manila, Philippines – Veteran broadcaster Ben Tulfo formalized his Senate bid for the 2025 midterm race, as he filed his Certificate of Candidacy on Saturday, Oct. 5.

Ben is the brother of sitting Senator Raffy Tulfo and senatorial aspirant and ACT-CIS Partylist Rep. Erwin Tulfo.

Unlike Erwin who is part of the administration’s “Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas” (Alliance for a New Philippines) slate, Ben said he is running as an independent candidate.

“That’s data driven. I need to follow that. That’s the preference of people,” said Tulfo about his choice to run independently.

Tulfo admitted he received invitations to join other groups but declined for now. He, however, said he is still weighing offers to be adopted as a guest candidate.

He said he talked to his brother Raffy “as a matter of courtesy” on his Senate bid.

“We are brothers. Isa lang ang dugong dumadaloy sa dugo namin, public service,” he said.

[Translation: We are brothers. Public service runs in our blood]

‘Dynasty of helping people’

Should Ben and Erwin win, there will be three Tulfos in the 24-member Senate composition — a first in recent history.

But for Ben, this couldn’t be considered a political dynasty — calling themselves as a “dynasty of helping people”.

“We lorded over helping people and sabay-sabay kaming magkakapatid (we did that as brothers). So it’s not a dynasty. No, it’s not. We don’t have any district, maybe (at) the executive level, you can think that…because you have a district. But running for Senate is a national office. You cannot have (a) dynasty,” Tulfo said.

“Kasalanan ba naming minahal namin ang propesyon sa media na pareho naming binigyan ng importansya?” he added.

[Translation: Is it our fault that we loved our profession in the media, which we all gave importance to?]

The Tulfo brothers topped the pre-election survey of the OCTA Research group held from Aug. 28 to Sept. 2.