Hontiveros on her Senate victory: ‘There is much to be done’
After failing in her first two senatorial bids, Risa Hontiveros is now well within the so-called magic twelve. With her victory official proclamation as a Senator-elect just days away, the former Akbayan party-list representative is taking the opportunity to thank and reassure her supporters who stood by her during the past three election cycles.
“Our long wait is over… We are in the Senate – borne on the shoulders of more than fifteen million Filipinos who believe that it is now time to open the Upper Chamber to ordinary people,” Hontiveros said in a press statement. She is currently ranked eight among the winning senatorial candidates. Her six-year term begins June 30 and ends by 2022.
“It has been a long wait, but it has not been a lonely one… To those who stood by my side after the elections of 2010 and 2013 and who never gave up on the idea of an activist in the Senate, I thank you with all my heart,” she added. She finished 13th during the 2010 Senate elections and 17th in the 2013 midterm elections.
She then went on to outline her legislative priorities once she takes office by July. “There is much work to be done. We will bring the fight for universal health to a new platform, cognizant that the uneven access to health care services are but reflective of larger structural inequities,” Hontiveros said.
“I will be a voice for the sectors and a representative of the underserved – they for whom we push for reforms, they from whom I will constantly seek direction and inspiration. There is much to be grateful for; there is much to be done. Our grand adventure begins. In the Senate, I will continue fighting for the causes I’ve long advocated,” she concluded.
Hontiveros first gained the public’s attention as an active member of the opposition bloc in the Lower House during the final years of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration. She is best known for her staunch advocate of the Reproductive Health Law.
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