Samira Gutoc Files Candidacy, Gives Senate a Second Try

Marawi civic leader Samira Gutoc is giving the Senate another try as she filed on Sunday her certificate of candidacy for senator under Manila Mayor Isko Moreno's party Aksyon Demokratiko.

Gutoc, a Muslim community organizer for women and persons displaced by armed conflict in Mindanao, failed to clinch a Senate seat in the 2019 elections.

She recently joined the national executive board of Aksyon Demokratiko and was named as one of the senatorial candidates under Moreno's slate along with entrepreneur Carl Balita.

Gutoc, who is a crisis worker, said she became more willing to run for senator out of her desire to help the country recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I learned that the key lessons are legislation, oversight, transparency, accountability, kinakailangan," she said.

She also decided to run under Moreno's slate because shares many of the Manila mayor's advocacies. 

"I felt that our closeness on the issue of stranded, displaced, mga manggagawang nawalan ng trabaho, mga teacher na kinakailangan ng gadget, that really resonated to me," she said.

Gutoc earlier said she joined Moreno's party as she's "always been a fan" of the late Senator Raul Roco, who founded Aksyon Demokratiko.

"Aksyon's focus on jobs, hunger, peace, empowerment of the masses and of the youth resonated quite powerfully with me, as these are the same objectives I have set for my work," she said.

Moreno is running for president in the 2022 elections under Aksyon with his running mate, Dr. Willie Ong.