#COCFiling for the #NLE2022 Day 1: Abner Afuang files COC for Senator, independent candidate pic.twitter.com/PVrcILZeqH

— COMELEC (@COMELEC) October 1, 2021

MANILA—A former Laguna town mayor filed his certificate of candidacy for senator in the May 9, 2022 elections on Friday.

Running as an independent candidate, Abner Afuang is taking another stab at winning a seat in the Senate.

He said he aspires to be a senator after the country has allegedly become a province of China under the administration of Rodrigo Duterte.

"Nakakaawa ang bayan... ang Pilipinas nakita ko, province of China. F*** you!" he told reporters.

(I pity our country.... I saw the Philippines, province of China. F*** you!)

Ex-Pagsanjan Laguna Mayor Abner Afuang, naghain din ng COC bilang senador sa #Halalan2022 pic.twitter.com/kNjvvLB2n5

— Johnson L. Manabat (@JohnsonManabat) October 1, 2021

Afuang previously made headlines after defacing a Chinese flag in 2015 over its reclamation on the South China Sea.

A former police officer, he also burned a Taiwanese flag in 2013 and doused celebrity Hayden Kho with water during a Senate committee hearing on a sex video scandal in 2009.

In the 2019 elections, Afuang placed 42nd in the senatorial race, garnering more than half a million votes.