Colmenares urged to run for Senate

BACOLOD CITY—A movement was launched in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental province, on Saturday to urge Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares to run for senator in 2016.

About 1,000 Negrenses, including Bacolod Mayor Monico Puentevella, joined the launching of the “Neri Colmenares for Senator Movement” at Bacolod Arts, Youth and Sports Center (BAYS) here.

“It is time Negros Occidental elects one of its own for the Senate after such a long time,” the mayor said.

Colmenares grew up in Bacolod City. His father was a security guard while his mother was a clerk at the city council in Bacolod.

Lawyer Edmundo Manlapao said that aside from putting a native of Bacolod in the Senate, Colmenares would bring with him principled politics to the upper chamber.

“Colmenares, as a senator, will be the spokesperson for the poor and the marginalized in the Senate,” Manlapao said.

BAYAN Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares JILSON SECKLER TIU

Colmenares said he was glad “that there are groups of people who are supporting a move for me to run for Senate.”

“Much as I would like to accept, unfortunately, I cannot accept right now, because one obstacle is I’m not rich. I don’t have the resources,” he added.

If he runs for senator, Colmenares said, he will need the support of the Makabayan bloc, which is set to meet end of August to decide whether to field senatorial candidates in 2016.

But Colmenares said he was happy with the number of Negrenses who gathered at BAYS because it showed that the work he had done in Congress had been recognized.

Colmenares said that if he would become a senator, the Makabayan bloc would have someone in the Senate who would follow up counterpart measures in the upper chamber.

One of these is the move in the House to have a P125 increase in daily wages.