Rep. Arlene Brosas, representative of the Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP) formally announced today, July 16, her candidacy for the Senate in the 2025 election. Brosas is currently the Assistant Minority Leader in Congress.

She is the second candidate to run under the Makabayan coalition, after Rep. France Castro of ACT Teachers’ Partylist announced her run.

“This decision is a push for the need to defend women’s rights amid the attacks of patriarchal and anti-women policies,” Brosas said in her press conference where various women’s organizations attended. She thanked the “committee of a hundred” representing women and LGBTQ+ in various sectors who will carry Gabriela from Congress to the Senate

“Gabriela, from Congress to the Senate,” was the united call of the groups. Women’s groups and the Makabayan were not deterred by the attacks on its first senatorial candidate, Castro. A day before Brosas’ announcement, a court in Tagum City issued an unjust verdict, declaring Castro, along with former Bayan Muna representative Satur Ocampo, and 16 others guilty of trumped-up child abuse charges.

Brosas, 47 years old, comes from a family of fisherfolks and peasants. She completed elementary and high school at the University of the Philippines Integrated School and studied Philippine Studies at UP Diliman. She taught Philippine Literature at UP Baguio and UP Manila.

She was appointed as the GWP representative in Congress in 2016. Prior to this, she was active in various women’s and children’s campaigns in the national capital.