Joel Villanueva registers candidacy for 2nd Senate term
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Joel Villanueva on Wednesday filed his candidacy for reelection to the Senate before the Commission on Elections.
Villanueva, who sought and won his first Senate seat as part of the Daang Matuwid coalition in 2016, will bid for reelection as an independent candidate.
"On this day, I am applying to be your employee in the Senate for a second term," Villaneuva said in a speech delivered in Filipino at the Sofitel tent in Pasay City.
"We need a Tesdaman in the Senate," he added, using a moniker he coined for himself during his 2016 campaign, "because the pandemic requires that we continue to create more jobs."
Villanueva won his first term as senator in 2016 with 18.46 million votes — the second-most votes garnered by a senatorial candidate that year.
Since then, 12 bills authored by Villanueva have been passed, including the Telecommuting or Work-From-Home Law, the Free Tuition Law, the Doktor Para sa Bayan Law, the First Time Jobseekers Law, and the Tulong-Trabaho Law.
Villanueva was chief of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority under President Benigno Aquino III who conferred on him the prestigious Order of Lakandula for his performance.
He was appointed TESDA head in 2010 and resigned in 2015 to launch his senatorial bid.
The senator is the son of Eddie Villanueva who founded the Jesus is Lord Church Worldwide and launched failed bids for the presidency in 2004 and 2010.
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