‘New perspective’: Makabayan bets seek to become ordinary people’s voice in Senate

MANILA, Philippines – Makabayan, a coalition of leftist party-list groups, has fielded a near-complete slate to join the race for the coveted 12 Senate seats up for grabs in the 2025 elections.

The 11-member slate is comprised of current and former lawmakers in the House of Representatives, as well as activists and advocates seeking their entry into politics.

The following filed their certificates of candidacy on Friday, October 4, the fourth day of the COC filing organized by the Commission on Elections (Comelec):

• Arlene Brosas – House Assistant Minority Leader, incumbent Gabriela Representative
• France Castro – House Deputy Minority Leader, incumbent ACT Teachers Representative
• Teddy Casiño – Former Bayan Muna representative
• Liza Maza – Former Gabriela representative
• Jerome Adonis – Labor leader
• Jocelyn Andamo – Nurse
• Ronnel Arambulo – Fisherfolk leader
• Mimi Doringo – Urban poor leader
• Mody Floranda – Transport group leader
• Amira Lidasan – Moro activist
• Danilo Ramos – Rice farmer, peasant leader

Seeking to jump from lower chamber to higher

Congresswoman Arlene Brosas has represented Gabriela Women’s Party in the House since 2016. Her main advocacy has been to push for women and children’s rights and protection against violence.

Among her priorities, if elected to the Senate, is to amend the anti-rape law to be based on lack of consent.

“Itutuloy po natin ang laban kontra korap at mapang-abuso, at kung mayroon po tayong Gabriela sa Kongreso, dapat mayroon din tayong Gabriela sa Senado,” she said.

(We will continue the fight against the corrupt and abusive, and if we have Gabriela in the House, we should have Gabriela in the Senate, too.)

After filing her COC, ACT Teachers Representative Castro spoke about her experience as a public teacher for 25 years. She shared that it took some years before she was regularized, and her salary and benefits were sometimes delayed. She was instrumental in setting up unions for teachers and government workers.

As a lawmaker who is on her third term, she passed several laws providing free tertiary education, expanded maternity leave, and higher honorariums for teachers serving in election boards, among other measures.

As Makabayan lawmakers, Brosas and Castro were active in being a critical voice on matters such as challenging confidential funds, and scrutinizing the annual national budget.

Liza Maza, former Gabriela representative and anti-poverty czar under former president Rodrigo Duterte, is seeking a political comeback. In her speech, she put front and center the need for an independent foreign policy. She said that the presence of foreign military bases are “magnets” for attacks.

“If we are neutral, like for example, Vietnam, why don’t we follow them? They do not allow [foreign] military bases on their soil. The new nations should really stand independent, whether you are a big or small country…and you should not follow these big powers who are there waging war for their own interests, not the interest of the ordinary Filipino people,” she said.

Maza said that this was the “new perspective” that she wanted to bring to the Senate.

Former Bayan Muna representative Teddy Casiño is also trying again after a failed Senate bid. He said that one lesson learned is how the progressives should not field themselves out with just a few candidates representing the ideology.

“We always fielded one or two candidates only for the Senate. I think one of our lessons is that that will not work. That’s why now we are 11…. We want to show that we are really a force to be reckoned with,” he said.

Casiño said that the lack of resources has made it difficult for progressive groups to succeed in their political bids, with political dynasties still controlling the machinery needed to win.

Multisectoral

The Makabayan bloc’s slate includes aspirants seeking to uphold the rights of their sector, from health workers, transport workers, farmers, fisherfolk, and the larger labor movement.

Kilusang Mayo Uno secretary-general Jerome Adonis, who has jumped around several jobs in construction, electronics, and transportation, among others, said he has never experienced even earning the minimum wage.

“Hanggang ngayon, ‘yung naranasan ko po na hirap ng manggagawa ay nararanasan pa rin ng milyon-milyong manggagawa sa kasalukuyan. Kaya ito po ang nagsilbing inspirasyon sa ‘kin para tumakbo sa Senado bilang boses ng mga manggagawa at ng mamamayang Pilipino,” said Adonis.

(The challenges of being a worker that I experience up to the present day are what the millions of workers experience as well. These have inspired me to run for the Senate as the voice of workers and Filipino citizens.)

The first three things he would prioritize as senator is to increase the minimum wage to P1,200, abolish regional wage boards, and end contractualization.

Registered nurse Jocelyn Andamo wants to uphold the rights of health workers like herself. She wants to allot 5% of the Philippines’ gross domestic product to the annual health budget of the government, raise health workers’ salaries to entice them to stay in the country, and push for their security of tenure.

While other aspiring lawmakers have made similar promises, Andamo said she brings experience as a health worker and “sincerity” to the national legislature.

“Ako po ang dapat mapansin dahil ako po ang mayroong karanasan, at masasabi kong baon ko sa Senado ang sinseridad dahil matagal na po akong naglilingkod na hindi naman po ako nagkaroon ng interes para mapayaman ko ang sarili ko,” she said.

(I should be the one people should notice because I have the experience, and I can say that I bring sincerity to the Senate because I have long been in public service without any interest in making myself rich.)

Ronel Arambulo, a fisherfolk leader from Binangonan, Rizal, is also eyeing a Senate seat. He said it was “unacceptable” that farmers and fisherfolk produce food in the country, yet the sector is among the poorest of the poor.

Apart from pushing for the rights of his sector, he also wants to fight for the Philippines’ rights in the West Philippine Sea, where fisherfolk have also faced threats to their livelihood.

During the administration of Rodrigo Duterte, leftist groups and Makabayan lawmakers were vilified and and red-tagged by the then-president himself. Such attacks became since the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) was established in late 2018.

During the 2016 presidential race and early in the term of the Duterte administration, Duterte and the Left were aligned, with him appointing activists to Cabinet posts. There was an eventual falling out triggered by Duterte’s policies such as his bloody war on drugs.

The harassment and violence against progressive groups continued under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration.

With a solid support base, Makabayan has solidified its presence in the House for decades. However, it has yet to replicate this success in the Senate. The leftist alliance has been on a failing streak in the higher chamber since 2010.

It will be an uphill battle for the Makabayan bloc as the ruling coalition and political dynasties remain dominant both in surveys and in historical results.

In the latest senatorial preference survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) conducted from September 14 to 23, all Makabayan aspirants except for Lidasan were at the bottom rung of the rankings, although made some progress from being not listed among preferences in March to achieving up to a 29-30 rank. Lidasan was not included in the SWS survey. – Rappler.com