Education entrepreneur Carl Balita joined the ranks of official senatorial bets as he filed his certificate of candidacy for senator before the Commission on Elections on Thursday, October 7, at around 9 am.

He is a part of presidential aspirant Isko Moreno’s senatorial slate, under political party Aksyon Demokratiko, along with Mindanao civic leader Samira Gutoc. Balita took his oath as Aksyon member last September 27.

Balita is known as the founder of the Carl E. Balita Review Center, a major review center with 120 local and overseas branches. He is also something of a social media personality, with 670,000 Facebook followers.

The educator, who said he is also a registered midwife and registered nurse, has said that he wants to use his experiences to craft legislation for leading the Philippines into a “better normal” post-pandemic.

“I offer my experience in leading quality organizations, my higher education, the network I have built across critical sectors and my willingness to find meanings in the experiences of the most vulnerable sectors hit by this pandemic disruption,” he said on Thursday as he faced reporters in Sofitel.

“Let us transfuse the science of evidence and data-driven governance in the old art of politics so that we don’t only engage in making sense but in sense making,” Balita continued.

He said he wants to address three crises brought about by the pandemic, economic crisis, health crisis, and learning crisis.

Asked why he joined Aksyon, the senatorial aspirant said the party resonated with him because its founder, the later senator Raul Roco, is an educator like himself while one of its first officers, Jimmy Galvez-Tan, was a health professional.

Moreno had personally appealed to him to run for senator, said Balita. Despite initial misgivings of his family, Balita decided to go for it, bolstered by his belief in the Manila mayor.

“I am from Manila. I see what he has done for Manila,” said Balita. – Rappler.com