MANILA - Senator Bam Aquino filed his certificate of candidacy on Tuesday in a bid to seek a second term.

Speaking to reporters, Aquino said there were some quarters who urged him not to run in 2019 because of the different political climate in the country.

"Hindi pa po tapos ang ating pangarap sa ating bansa. Ang pangarap natin simple lang - isang maunlad na bayan na walang maiiwan," he said.

Aquino ranked in the 18th to 23rd places in a September Pulse Asia survey on preferred senatorial candidates. Twelve Senate seats are up for grabs in the midterm vote.

The minority senator has authored 19 laws, the most recent of which is the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, a measure that provides free tuition for students in state-run universities, colleges, and technical-vocational schools.

He recently filed the "Bawas Presyo Bill," which seeks to suspend the excise tax on fuel.

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Aquino has served as the chairman of the Senate Committee on Science and Technology since July 2016, while he previously chaired the Senate Committee on Education, Culture and Arts from July 2016 to February 2017.

He was chairman of the Senate Committee on Trade, Commerce, and Entrepreneurship and Senate Committee on Youth from July 2013 to June 2016.

Prior to becoming a senator in 2013, Aquino was a social entrepreneur and a youth leader, having served as chairman and chief executive officer of the National Youth Commission from 2003 to 2006.

He is the cousin of former President Benigno Aquino III and the nephew of late Senator Ninoy Aquino, whose assassination in 1983 led to the first EDSA People Power that ended the Marcos dictatorship.

He graduated summa cum laude with a Management Engineering degree from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1999.

In 2008, he took an Executive Education Program on Leadership and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government in Harvard University.