Villanueva files COC for Senate reelection bid in Eleksyon 2022

Senator Joel Villanueva on Wednesday formalized his reelection bid in the 2022 elections by filing his certificate of candidacy (COC).

In his speech after the filing, Villanueva, who is seeking his second Senate term, said he filed his COC on the same day he resigned as Director General of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) six years ago, to prepare his bid for the Senate.

October 6 is also the birthday of his father, evangelist and CIBAC party-list Representative Brother Eddie Villanueva.

Villanueva said that of the 500 bills he filed in the Senate, 82 were passed into law, including the work from home law, free tuition law, the Doktor Para sa Bayan Act, First Time Job Seekers Assistance Act, and the Tulong Trabaho Act.

"Kaya ngayon pong araw na ito, ako po ay nag-apply muli ng trabaho bilang inyong empleyado sa Senado sa pangalawang termino. Nais po nating ipagpatuloy ang ating mga ginagawa. Lalong-lalo na po ngayon sapagkat naniniwala tayo at this point in time mas kailangan ng TESDAMAN sa Senado. Bakit? Dahil po sa pandemya ang kailangan ay tuloy-tuloy ang paggawa at paglikha ng trabaho," Villanueva said.

(Today, I am reapplying for a job as an employee in the Senate for the second term. We want to continue what we are doing. Especially now because we believe that at this point in time, we needed TESDAMAN in the Senate. Why? Because of the pandemic, what is needed is the continuous working and creation of jobs.)

Villanueva said the National Employment Recovery Strategy that he pushed for is set to create 1,220,000 jobs with score cards per provinces and per regions.

Villanueva said he hoped that an act creating the Department of Overseas Filipino Workers will be passed into law, and he vowed to continue his work as the Vice Chairman of the Committee on Finance for the TUPAD program.

Meanwhile in a statement during the launch of the Tulong Trabaho Scholarship Program, Villanueva said that retooling and upskilling are the ways to go to become employable as the country recovers from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. — RSJ, GMA News